An Addgene Summer Internship

I never would have imagined that my summer before high school senior year would have been spent within a lovable community that has allowed me to expand my knowledge more than ever before. Before joining Addgene, I had spent most of my junior year stressed out applying for summer programs. I spent one day at Addgene last summer, through the La Vida Scholars summer program. I was unsure whether or not I wanted to major in biochemistry. There, I had exchanged contact with Amy C., Addgene’s intern coordinator shortly after hearing her talk about Addgene’s internship opportunity taking place next summer. 

I applied to Addgene and began the interview process with Amy, who let me know in March that I successfully secured an internship at Addgene! I was eager to accept my position, but I was waiting to hear back from other summer programs. Amy took into consideration just how busy I was and ensured that my decision deadline would be extended. I appreciated how flexible Amy was, which was the impression I got from the La Vida Scholars tour. After some time had passed, I reached out to Amy with exciting news. I managed to secure a virtual summer program, teaching me the basics of physics and sustainable design while allowing me to do my internship in the daytime. 

Getting into the office for the first time, being introduced to all the members around the office one by one, I knew that I belonged there. Addgenies had a good work-life balance and were content. As a worker, there are expectations whether or not you work in the lab. My first week at Addgene, I had to get used to the workspaces, as well as complete the lab safety and cybersecurity training before stepping foot into the lab itself. I appreciated that Addgene was treating all the high school interns as equals, because as soon as I had passed my training, I dove straight into my capstone project. A capstone project is a major project given to each intern to complete and present on. 

Figure 1: Addgene's summer interns presenting their capstone projects during the Summer Intern Poster Presentation. 

As someone who had limited experience when it came to lab work, I was worried that there would be heavy restrictions on what I could and couldn’t do as an intern. I expected that these restrictions would not allow me to use my full potential as a scientist. But I expected something wrong. My capstone project was based on plasmid cloning and I, the researcher, got to choose what gene to focus on. The gene choice had restrictions. It couldn’t be a Covid gene, a toxin, or an oncogene, for safety reasons, and the insert size should be a max of 500 bp (preferably).

I compiled a list of three options from the Addgene catalog. These were a miR30 cassette, Syntaxin3, and osa-miR528. My manager, Katherine N., reviewed the list and followed up with her manager. They looked at cost and availability, and the Syntaxin3 gene was the winner. We used the next 4-5 weeks to work on cloning the Syntaxin3 gene in a pLenti vector backbone. During those five weeks, I worked with my mentors, Katherine, Amrita R., and Kate H. Our results every week always came with surprises.

Originally we thought during the first three weeks that we had made a mistake by not having the right concentration of a reagent during our HiFi assembly but decided to go ahead anyway. We were running on a time crunch and knew that if we were to restart the procedure we would not have enough time. During the following two weeks, we were able to obtain eight clones. We ran digested and undigested samples of the clones on an electrophoresis gel in order to differentiate which clone had successfully incorporated Syntaxin3 into its backbone. Once we had gotten our results back from the electrophoresis, my manager and I were unsure if there were any successful clones because the bands were all in the wrong place. Except for one. My manager speculated that the one clone we found with the correct bands was the right plasmid, so after discussion, we sent it for sequencing.

The gene was successfully sequenced, confirming that we had made a 100% successful clone of the Syntaxin3 in the pLenti backbone! Once everything was confirmed, I worked on my capstone project report and presentation, during the final week at Addgene. This report shared my work by breaking down the process of each day, my background, observations, etc. On my final day (today!), I presented my research to Addgenies and friends. These invited guests came to see the research from all the high school interns, done within the past six weeks.

Through Addgene, I learned the basics of lab safety, general work skills — such as using Google workspace — and got the chance to work on my very own research project! Coming from an environment with limited opportunities and support, puts into perspective just how much one’s environment changes them. Addgene gave me the chance to become a real life scientist. Addgene gave me the chance to grow into a community that had opened its arms to me from day one. Addgene has changed my life for the better, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Toj Toj-Villagran is a rising senior in high school who just completed their summer internship at Addgene. They plan on majoring in biochemistry in college and play the drum set as their personal instrument. They are the oldest sibling in a Guatemalan family of Mayan descent.