My final week with the immersion program was mostly successful, if not much like the previous week: lab work focused on finalizing assessment of correct mutations to the adeno-associated viral capsid-encoding portions of its genome and subsequent viral production. Unfortunately, there was a complication with the viral production, and being able to analyze the virus I designed and genetically encoded will not be possible at this phase of the project. This had an unexpected result of possibly opening up a more long-term collaboration on the research, however. Ultimately, I’ll be taking back the work I’ve done in completing the genome modification to Ithaca, where hopefully I’ll be able to continue the project in the short term and perhaps even grow it into a larger effort in renewing a collaboration between the Jin Lab at Cornell and the Kaplitt Lab at Weill for enhanced gene therapy via rational viral vector capsid optimization. Looking back, even with the slight failure at the end, I have to admit I managed to make a good deal of progress with this project given the small amount of time given: I designed a rational, engineering approach to a medical problem (how to use a virus better for gene therapy), sold the idea to a lab that normally approaches such problems from the medical perspective, and successfully encoded my design into a real, genetic blueprint. So I may have just wrapped my contribution to this project at Weill up in a hurry out of necessity, but next week a small package should arrive at my bench in Ithaca containing a dozen or so tubes of frozen DNA, and with any luck the work will continue.

I will admit I was disappointed that there were no further clinical immersion opportunities in the final week due to the surprise accreditation process the hospital found itself wrapped up in, but it allowed me to step back and take a week to assess my experience on the medical side of things during this immersion term. I do truly enjoy being a grad student, and I look forward to getting back to my own research. That being said, I’ve come to the conclusion that as a biomedical engineer working in isolation from the clinical setting is both a wasted opportunity and an inefficient way to conduct oneself in our field. For real discoveries to be engineered in the lab and transferred as fast as possible to the clinical setting, someone needs to be capable of communicating and facilitating the transfer on a regular basis, not just every so often when collaboration requires it or a group of students spends a summer on the other side of the equation. This experience has made me realize how much I personally enjoy participating in both the medical and the academic environment of biomedical engineering, and while it has indeed actually made me reconsider the concept of MD/PhD as a future possibility, it has more importantly and concretely convinced me that in my graduate career as well as any future in academia I need to take the concept of immersion in the medical environment beyond this short immersion term. Because honestly, at this point the concept of being a biomedical engineer that’s not a short step away from the clinic or the operating room (you know, that place where a lot of our work makes the biggest difference) just seems silly.