Hey, my name is Canyon, and I’m interning at the Scripps Research Institute. I intern within the chemistry department thats pioneering new reactions to create more efficient techniques on making certain molecules. More specifically, my lab, lead by Keary Engle, focuses on organic chemistry that uses metals to form bonds, this is known as metal catalysis. Everybody in the lab are researching super complex information and I’m learning while being surrounded by PHD and Postdoc students. My first week here was spent shadowing my advisor, Johny, and watching the whole process of setting up reactions, making sure of its transformation, purifying, and ultimately testing that it’s the substance we’re looking for. For my internship I show up around 9 and leave between 4:30 and 5 everyday. I take the bus to and from the Lab.
For my first day I stopped by human resources to get my badge that lets me in everywhere I need to go. Following this, someone took me to the lab where I’m interning when I met Johny. Skyler, the safety advisor of the lab, toured me around the lab and took me through all the basic safety precautions. This involved where the fire extinguishers, chemistry lab shower, and especially caustic, carcinogenic, and flammable chemicals are. The lab manager then took me on a brief tour of the building. I then shadowed johnny for the rest of the day and tried grasping what he was doing.
The second day in the lab was mainly spent setting up my Scripps email and notebook for the lab. These are mandatory for all the information I’ll be receiving and observing. I then shadowed Johnny for the rest of the day and learned terms and testing such as TLC, thin layer chromatography, and NMR, nuclear magnetic resonance. These are what we use during and after a reaction to figure out if our substances have fully reacted to create our molecule or not. TLC is done on a small silica plate, as seen below, and NMR is a multi-million dollar machine that’s used in the end. The NMR machine scans for the protons in a substance and gives you a graph of its finding so you can see product and reactant.
On my third day I continued shadowing Johnny all day, but was able to get hands-on experience. I connected our products to the rotovap machine, an advanced form of distilling, to purify our product. Conducted TLC’s to see the progress of the reaction, and loaded our extraction machine.
On Thursday I continued to familiarize myself with this hands-on lab work while shadowing Johny. During this day I really felt as if I was being handed over the reins of the lab and felt comfortable while doing so. I once again did this big cycle of setting up the reactions, making sure of its transformation, purifying, and testing that it’s the substance we want.
On Friday it was actually the annual celebration of the establishment of our lab, so after Johnny and I set up our reaction for the day, we all went out to eat. There I was able to meet people I’ve seen around the lab but never talked to before. Everyone has unique backgrounds and personalities that I enjoyed uncovering.
Other than the lab and my internship, I’ve been going to the gym everyday. Been going to a 24 hour fitness class usually around 6 or 7 to 8 or 9. It’s a very nice gym and always very crowded. On Saturday, me and Yaphet went down to Pacific Beach to soak in some rays and enjoy the ocean. Great cultural experience as we were able to observe the scenery and even find a few interesting street acts. This Sunday’s been pretty chill, and I’m taking it to just relax.
Fascinating… sounds like a great opportunity.