How is the internship going?

So I promised to write a blog that related to school and not just my travels in Europe so I will give a short update about my internship.  I can't remember how detailed I discussed my internship in the past so I will start by saying that my internship involves laboratory experiments.  I'm basically using statistics and the design of experiment process to try to modify a small part of the Flu Cell Culture process that Novartis uses to make flu vaccines.  The first month was pretty tough only because I have no experience with the process and it has been a long time since I thought about biological reactions.  My previous work experience was in production and not at all research based.  I spent a ton of time on Wikipedia looking up basic biological process and terms saying "what is that word" and "how do you spell it" (plus add in the German to English factor).

I spent the first month or so just trying to learn the process, talking to people in the labs, and reading past LGO theses and a very small amount of research papers. The problem with my project from a literature review perspective is that it is so specific that very little literature applies to it.  I think I have saved about four articles and I will probably only reference two of them in my thesis.  Then I have my statistics book...and Wikipedia.  Can you site Wikipedia in an MIT thesis?  Woe is me.



Aside from relearning how cell growth and viruses work, the frustrating part of the first month of the internship (and just being an intern in general) is that I only really have my main project, so when I hit a road block where I am waiting on someone or some piece of equipment...I end up just sitting there.  I try to be as proactive as I can be and I don't want to imply that Novartis or my supervisors have not been trying to help me as much as they can, but when someone goes on vacation and they are the expert you need to speak to there is not much you can do.  Or if a pandemic flu strain breaks out across the entire world with the potential to cause serious problems if a slight mutation occurs...the pandemic work certainly gets priority.  Of course this is just another challenge to manage and there are always multiple solutions to any problem and we have certainly found ways to continue working on my project.

[caption id="attachment_1368" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="I actually increased the size of my experiments from 6 to 22 by driving to the OBI (like a Home Depot) and purchasing double sided tape"][/caption]

I would say that at this point (about six weeks in) I fully understand what I am trying to accomplish with my project and have begun the task of working through that problem.  During the first couple weeks I did some practice experiments to get used to working in a lab again and to get experience working in a laminar flow hood.  More recently, I have started my main experiments and will see where the results point me for the rest of my internship.

[caption id="attachment_1370" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="This is a picture of a laminar flow hood. They are pretty cool. When you spray disinfectant into the hood you can literally see the droplets racing straight down. As long as you don't pass over a sterilized object with an unsterilized object your sample should remain uncontaminated. So far I am 12 for 12 with clean experiments but I just launched 19 more so we will see if I maintain my perfect record."][/caption]

I have also accelerated the speed that I work on my side projects (they were originally scheduled for after mid-stream review in September) so that I can stay busy.  Who knows, maybe I can take on another side project when that is complete.  These projects may not be specifically covered in my thesis, but they are helping me better understand the department and the overall process.  It is funny because the past year's students and professors warned all of us about scope creep.  Often companies keep adding on and broadening the problems they want you to solve and you have to tell them "No, that is beyond what I can do."  Novartis is pretty disciplined (especially in the technical department that I am working in) and they have me focused on my project and the main project has not changed since it was first proposed last October.  This has caused me to ask for more to do (and Novartis has obliged while trying to keep it somewhat related to my main project).

[caption id="attachment_1371" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="Google image search turned up the left and middle picture for scope creep. Neither were acceptable so I MS paint combined 2 pictures for the picture on the right. It is much better."][/caption]

I've heard this from other LGOs and definitely experienced it myself.  Most of us had pretty successful careers before LGO and then balancing the LGO curriculum (MBA at Sloan plus Engineering at MIT) requires pretty extensive calendar management.  Then you start your internship and it feels like things have come to a screeching halt.  The pace just feels slower.  Starting any new job or position can be like this.  You are so new to everything that you feel like you can't do anything, you just keep asking more and more questions.  Then at some point you are incredibly busy and don't really know where the transition occurred.  I would say that I am climbing out of that slow period and things are picking up, which is good.  i like having more work than I have time to finish.

Well, that is enough for now.  Now I won't feel guilty when I post pictures from this past weekend and the next couple of upcoming weekends.