Education & Workforce Development

During my time as an Amgen Scholar at the UC Berkeley, I have been working with Priya Moorjani’s lab, which focuses on evolutionary biology and population genetics. I have been developing and implementing a pipeline for reliably estimating the germline mutation rate in primates.

I had a wonderful time as an Amgen Scholar! I had a wonderful mentor, Dr. Ellen Rothenberg. She paired me with a postdoc, Dr. Hiroyuki Hosokawa, and a lab technician, Maile Romeo-Wolf. With all mentors, I learned a lot throughout the summer. My project for the summer was studying early T cell development by determining phenotypes through transcription factor knockouts using the CRISPR/Cas9 system. The significance of the project is to deepen the understanding of how T cells develop because they are important players for our immune system.

This summer, I was an Amgen Scholar at the National Institutes of Health. I was working at the National Cancer Institute in Dr. Suresh Ambudkar’s lab. The focus of the lab is on p-glycoprotein, which is a membrane protein on all cells capable of pumping out many different substrates from inside the cell. In cancer cells, this protein is over-expressed, meaning there are a lot more on the cell. This causes problems for cancer patients because this protein often will pump out anti-cancer drugs from the cell, making the cells resistant to treatment. My project with p-glycoprotein involved identifying more molecules that are able to be pumped out by the protein, as there are very many known, but new ones are being found frequently.

Ask Ivan Simpson-Kent who his early idols were and he would give a surprising response: criminals. This is despite growing up in a dangerous neighborhood in West Philadelphia, where he lived across from drug dealers, often heard gunshots at night, and nearly daily stories of people, mostly youth, getting murdered. “I perceived these criminals as invincible outlaws going against the limits society had placed upon them,” he says.

“My teacher is amazing. This is my second year speaking English for the first time, and she has provided me with help to improve my English skills while learning biological concepts and lab skills. She promotes multiculturalism and diversity, and she deserves some recognition for her hard work.” -Student of Mary Jo Renear at East Longmeadow High School in Western Massachusetts

Ever since I was a little kid I was interested in science and thought of becoming a scientist. However, it wasn’t until high school that I realized what biotechnology is and that I wanted to major in that field. I became interested by attending a college talk at my current university about all the majors they offer. Ever since that moment, I started seeking extracurricular courses to learn more about biotechnology and to start gaining knowledge about it.

Héctor L Ayala-Del-Río recently received an unexpected thank you card: It was from a local high school science teacher, explaining that she was having a challenging time in her classroom, but how a recent event that Ayala-Del-Río and his team organized made all the difference. She had attended an Amgen Biotech Experience (ABE) teacher appreciation event at the Caguas Science Center, and the act of being recognized “made her feel that everything was worth it and that she should keep going,” says Ayala-Del-Río of the University of Puerto Rico-Humacao.

At the U.S. Amgen Scholars symposium at UCLA in July, an unexpected reunion occurred. When Janielle Cuala took the stage to explain her summer research at Caltech, Kristina Folta couldn’t believe her eyes: It was a friend of hers from Guam with whom she played rugby. “I was so excited to see someone else coming out of Guam and entering the STEM field,” Folta recalls.

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation announced the opening of its Gro More Grassroots Grants with KidsGardening, inviting schools and nonprofit organizations from across the country to apply for funds to support their youth garden programs. The Grassroots Grants initiative, now in its ninth year, will focus its support on garden and greenspace projects that connect more children with the life-enhancing and transformative benefits of gardening.

Ms. Walmsley leads Tetra Tech’s geomatic technologies group and is the program manager for remote sensing. She has more than fifteen years of experience in the environmental management and consulting industries. She is a certified GISP and PMP. Her experience includes using GIS and remote sensing technology on projects throughout the United States and internationally.