Katelyn Bennett
Division I Field Hockey Athlete Scores With New England Biolabs Internship
Katelyn Bennett, a current senior at Merrimack College, is currently holding an internship at New England Biolabs. “Thus far, I believe that this internship is challenging yet rewarding in the sense that research/development and laboratory experience is an essential part in my career path with medicine. Working in a professional laboratory environment helps to evaluate the fundamentals in chemistry/biology, and apply them to hands-on work.” She hopes to earn her MD license in the future and utilize these fundamental skills while applying them to her future education.
“There are many aspects of my education at Merrimack that have prepared me for my internship. Cell biology, organic chemistries, general chemistries, statistics and molecular biology/biotechnology are just a handful of relevant courses which have prepared me for analysis of data, and understanding my main research goal here at NEB. For example, in my cell biology course, the main laboratory protocols included analyzing yeast cultures after measuring the optical densities. This is a direct correlation to my project, and I could understand the intricacies of the samples I was provided with. Also, in organic chemistry, a large aspect of the course was analyzing spectra from nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), as well as IR spectroscopy which share many similarities with the concepts of analyzing mass spectrometry. Also, many of the laboratory courses at Merrimack encourage peer collaboration which is something I have taken with me to NEB, discussing ideas with fellow interns, and facilitating conversations with my mentors.”
“This internship allows me to explore the professional world and focus my career decision, while identifying my talents and abilities.”
Currently, Katelyn is working on research using a liquid-chromatography mass spectrometry machine to do a quantitative proteomics analysis on high optical density E.coli cell lysates to determine factors that make linear DNA and/or short RNA more susceptible to degradation in the HD extracts in order to make a protein synthesis system more efficient. Along with research, she will be learning the instrumentation of the electrospray (ESI) mass spectrometry/ “”bottom-up”” proteomics, and learning how to operate and analyze data from a liquid chromatography (LC-MS) machine.
In addition to joining the New England Biolabs Running Club where she gets to run with her colleagues, Katelyn is also a Division 1 NCAA Field Hockey Athlete at Merrimack College.
