[Application] Please dear Teechar kindly correct my research experience.

[shapol46]

My experience in carrying out research began with my master thesis project in Human Genetics Laboratory at X University which is one the top universities in my country. The main focus of the laboratory was to investigate the gene polymorphisms involved in multifactorial autoimmune diseases such as Systemic lupus erythematous and Juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Among many multifactorial autoimmune disorders, Henoch-Schönlein purpura (HSP) had not been studied anywhere in this country. Therefore, after consulting my supervisor, I decided to focus my research on “X gene polymorphism in X children who suffer from HSP”. This disease is usually self-limited; however, it is the main reason of end stage renal failure among children. Therefore, my aim was finding those alleles which are significantly associated with HSP and using the result as a diagnosis factor and prevent the disease by controlling most of the environmental risk factors that affect children who are susceptible to this disease early in life.
The structure of this project contributed greatly to my ability to carry out independent research by challenging me to think critically. I reviewed previous literature and I as well used Bioinformatics tools to identify which alleles are the most deleterious one and finally I decided to work on seven alleles.
I collected blood and saliva samples from a children's hospital by contacting directly with parents and patients and I convinced parents that this investigation will serve future generations. This helped me to improve my communication skills and understanding the parents’ concern about their children and as a result increased my sense of compassion.
I applied various laboratory techniques such as DNA extraction and PCR-based methods. I extracted the DNA by modifying a protocol which is much safer and less time consuming compared to usual manual protocols, then I designed several primers both manually and by software, I did X by Single Specific Primer-Polymerase Chain Reaction (SSP-PCR) method, and used electrophoresis agarose gel and Gel Doc for band observation. Finally, I used chi square statistic test to investigate whether distributions of case and control groups are differing from one another.
Among seven alleles that I worked on two of them were significantly associated with HSP and the related paper is under review for publication in a peer reviewed journal. A final draft of a review article is in the last stages of preparation before submission to a peer reviewed journal.
During my research whenever I didn’t get the result, I learned to find my mistakes by going back and repeating the steps or searching on the Internet to learn others' experience and share mine, as well. During this time based on the role of X gene polymorphism in some autoimmune diseases I also decided to test its role in this disease by using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) technique; however, I couldn’t find any correlation.
Furthermore, because of my interest in Bioinformatics tools I analyzed missense single-nucleotide polymorphisms in two different genes to find the most effective ones in changing the protein products related to autoimmune diseases, and I published the results in two international congresses. Therefore, I am familiar with several Bioinformatics tools, such as PARSESNP and Reverse PSI-BLAST.
While working on this project, I as well joined an interdisciplinary team in a Stem Cell Laboratory located in our university which worked on X. The team decided to know whether X change the level of expression of some candidate genes such as X and X by real-time PCR. My responsibility was culturing bulge cells of rat hair follicles as well as RNA extraction. Apart from several techniques that I learned, this experience also provided me a very good insight about team work.

 

[teechar]

My experience in carrying out research began with my master's thesis project at the Human Genetics Laboratory in X University, which is one the top universities in Iran. The main focus of the laboratory was to investigate the gene polymorphisms involved in multifactorial autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematous and juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Among many multifactorial autoimmune disorders, Henoch-Schönlein purpura (HSP) had not been studied anywhere in this country. Therefore, after consulting my supervisor, I decided to focus my research on X gene polymorphism in X children who suffer from HSP. This disease is usually self-limited; however, it is the main cause of end-stage renal failure among children. Therefore, my aim was to find those alleles which are significantly associated with HSP and to use the result as a diagnosis factor to help in the prevention of the disease by controlling most of the environmental risk factors that affect children who are susceptible to this disease early in life.

Structuring that project contributed greatly to my ability to carry out independent research by challenging me to think critically. I had to review previous literature and I also used bioinformatics tools to identify which alleles are the most deleterious, and finally I decided to work on seven alleles. I collected blood and saliva samples from a children's hospital by contacting parents and patients directly, and I convinced those parents that my investigation will help future generations. This enabled me to improve my communication skills and better understand the parents’ concerns about their children and, as a result, increased my sense of compassion.

I applied various laboratory techniques such as DNA extraction and PCR-based methods. I extracted the DNA by modifying a protocol, which is much safer and less time-consuming compared to usual manual protocols, then I designed several primers both manually and by software. I did X by Single Specific Primer-Polymerase Chain Reaction (SSP-PCR) method, and used electrophoresis agarose gel and Gel Doc for band observation. Finally, I used a chi square statistic test to investigate whether distributions of case and control groups are different from one another.

Among seven alleles that I worked on, two were significantly associated with HSP and the related paper is under review for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. A final draft of a review article is in the last stages of preparation before submission to a peer-reviewed journal.

During my research, whenever I didn’t get the correct result, I learned to find my mistakes by going back and repeating the steps or searching on the Internet to learn from others' experience and share mine, as well. To focus on the role of X gene polymorphism in some autoimmune diseases, I also decided to test its role in this disease by using restriction the fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) technique; however, I couldn’t find any correlation.
Furthermore, because of my interest in Bioinformatics tools, I analyzed missense single-nucleotide polymorphisms in two different genes to find the most effective ones in changing the protein products related to autoimmune diseases, and I published the results in two international congresses. Therefore, I am familiar with several Bioinformatics tools, such as PARSESNP and Reverse PSI-BLAST.
While working on that project, I also joined an interdisciplinary team in a stem-cell laboratory located in our university, which worked on X. The team decided to investigate whether X changes the level of expression of some candidate genes such as X and X by real-time PCR. My responsibility was culturing bulge cells of rat hair follicles as well as RNA extraction. Apart from several techniques that I learned, this experience also provided me a very good insight into cooperative teamwork