An IMU Medical Biotechnology student, Danielle Shoba Pereira was accepted to undergo her internship at the Shepherd Lab, which is based in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, at the University of Auckland. “I worked mainly under the supervision of Dr Kate Lee on a number of projects during my three-month internship. As an undergraduate-level intern, I was mainly tasked with assay optimisations, which involved conventional PCR assays and RFLP assays. I also handled most of the sample genotyping for my supervisor, which used qPCR HRM analysis as well as conventional PCR for different samples. I was also able to carry out plasmid ligation, and bacterial transformation procedures”. 
Reflecting on her biggest challenge while undertaking the internship in New Zealand, Danielle said that “Personally, I felt that adapting to a new working environment as quickly as possible was the biggest challenge. However, this was greatly aided by the fact that I was already relatively competent in basic lab skills, which allowed me to start work quickly, and with little trouble. I did not face too many challenges over the course of my internship, as most of the people in the lab I was based in were friendly, and always willing to help out”. “I sincerely would like to thank the IMU’s Medical Biotechnology programme for preparing me well and instilling a firm grasp of basic lab skills, which allowed me to learn more during my internship. It also instilled a level of confidence in my abilities in these techniques, which allowed me to work with minimal supervision and also allowed me to have more opportunities to work on new things that I had not done before”.
| Danielle’s Valuable Advice to Fellow Students |
|---|
| For all the students and particularly my juniors, it would always be best to keep an open mind, always be willing to learn, especially in a field that is constantly growing and evolving like biotechnology. |
Written by: Danielle Shoba Pereira (MB1/15) Photos credits: Danielle and Farah Ahmad
