Hope Omonyi, a junior biological sciences major at Illinois State University, spends her summer researching pancreatic cancer at the world-famous Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, surrounded by scrub caps, lab coats, graph charts, and microscopes. Ta.
“Pancreatic cancer is a really deadly cancer and very difficult to study,” Professor Omoniyi said. “I was working to look at a precancerous lesion called PanIN and how it progresses as we age.”
Omoniyi worked with a team of mentors, principal investigators (PIs), and 13 summer interns from across the country. However, her summer research was essentially independent, and she had the freedom to choose the research time and the parameters used to study pancreatic cancer.
Hope Omoniyi, second from left, and 13 other summer interns at Johns Hopkins.
“Most of my day consisted of independent research, which involved looking at H and E slides, which are stained slides of pancreatic cells, and identifying structures within cells or tissue samples.” Mr. Omoniyi said.
Working at Johns Hopkins University also helped him develop new skills by following in the footsteps of Omoniyi’s doctors and learning how to code.
“I had to learn how to code using MATLAB,” Omoniyi said. “CODA is a function that my principal investigator at Johns Hopkins University developed using MATLAB to code to calculate cell density and perform tissue analysis.”
Despite facing new challenges, Omonyi reminded herself that she was chosen for a reason. She said her preparation at Illinois State University gave her confidence in her summer job with some of the world’s top doctors.
Hope Omoniyi shared her summer research in her final internship presentation.
The internship at Johns Hopkins University also helped Omonyi gain a clearer understanding of her future career path.
“I really want to do more research,” Omoniyi said. “I wanted to be a doctor, but this summer I fell in love with research.”
It is not often that junior undergraduate students are given the opportunity to intern at one of the world’s leading research hospitals. Omoniyi learned about this opportunity from a friend and decided to apply. Her advice to students is to pursue what you want to achieve.
“Don’t be shy,” Omoniyi said. “If I hadn’t been shy and continued to pursue what I wanted, I might have gotten more opportunities sooner.”
She returned to Illinois State University for her junior year feeling more prepared than ever because of her experience at Johns Hopkins University and the new skills she gained.
Research was the highlight of Omoniyi’s summer, but being able to explore a new city and spend time with other interns also had a big impact.
“In the dorms we were staying in, everyone left their doors open. After lab, I would literally go to other people’s apartments and sit and see what everyone else was doing. We went to the gym together and explored the city together,” Omonyi said.
Omoniyi presented her summer research results in a final presentation to her fellow doctoral students. students, principal investigators, and mentors.
“I loved the people I met and the experiences I had this summer,” Omoniyi said. “The team is still in touch. I know it was this summer, but we hope to keep in touch for years to come and be able to participate in further research next summer. ”
At Johns Hopkins University, Omoniyi has developed good relationships with other Illinois State University alumni who also work at the hospital, including child life specialist Ashley Bautista ’22 and speech pathology clinical fellow Allie Beam ’22. I was there.
