Harry Zou - Dr. Rhee - Week 2

I mainly spent this week in the lab starting work on determining my research project and then starting it later in the week. My first day in the lab was spent shadowing and introducing myself to the Rhee lab members and hearing about the wide range of work that they do on Tuberculosis (Tb). I shadowed a technician who explained the various intricacies of using their liquid chromatography mass spectrometer to analyze a wide range of metabolites across different Tb conditions. On Tuesday, we had the weekly immersion meeting where Dr. Shih presented on the broad implications of ChatGPT on healthcare and radiology. 

For my research project this summer, I will be working with Dr. Chris Brown on sequencing the rpoB gene of Mtb cultures (the causative agent cultures) that became rifampin-resistant after desiccation. I will also later be shadowing him when Tb is the leading cause of death among infectious diseases and has increasingly gained resistance to antibiotics that are commonly used to treat it such as rifampin. However, the exact mechanisms by which this antibiotic resistance is gained are unclear. Mtb also spreads via aerosolization which exposes it to a very dry or desiccating environment, but again the effects of desiccation on Mtb remain unclear. In his study on the effects of desiccation, Chris found that desiccated Mtb grew better on rifampin plates than non-desiccated Mtb, but does not know the exact basis of this increased resistance. Where I come in is that I will be extracting and purifying the genomic DNA from these resistant Mtb strains to sequence their rpoB gene. rpoB encodes for a subunit of RNA polymerase and some mutations in the gene are associated with rifampin resistance. Given the very slow growth of Mtb, I haven't started bench work yet, but have begun to design a set of 5 primers and a protocol. 

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