Student Research Spotlight: Wistar Institute at UPenn and Schulman Lab at Johns Hopkins University

I did an REU Internship at the Wistar Institute at UPenn, and I’m currently a research assistant in the at the Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering.

I did my internship during the summer of 2023, and I’ve been working at the Schulman lab since January 2024. My research position will be until I graduate.

My internship was focused on using lentiviral vectors to over express certain proteins in mammalian cells; those proteins are involved in stem cell differentiation. 

The research I’m currently involved in is characterizing RNase H, an enzyme that will be used along with other RNases and RNA Polymerase in a real time monitoring molecular logic circuit.

I really enjoyed my REU internship because it was my first time doing real research outside of school, and I learned so much about the world of academia and about grad school, and I loved living in Philly. 

I have enjoyed my current research for the same reasons, and also because I’ve had the opportunity to attend conferences and meet so many cool people. I also enjoy having a mentor who’s in my field, so I can talk to her about many different things related to grad school, academics, and career prospects. 

The best thing to do is just cold email every professor you can find, even if it’s not what you think you would want to do. You will be surprised how interconnected a lot of stem research is, and it’s good to branch out and try different things.

I would like to move out of the country and do research in botanics and traditional medicine.

Co-President of the Physical Chemistry Club

Learn more about Damilola Fapohunda: http://linkedin.com/in/damilola-fapohunda