Jumping into the deep end 

By Meika Tomita, University of California – San Diego

My name is Meika, I was born and raised in New York and attend the University of California San Diego studying Human Biology.  Whenever I am not working, I enjoy cooking (a variety of dishes but have been very into peas lately) and playing volleyball (especially beach!). During my time at UCSD I have found a lot of joy in hosting picnics and creating charcuterie boards by the beach. In the future, I hope to become a physician scientist and incorporate research into practice. 

This summer I will be researching the mechanisms behind drug tolerant persister cells and how they change their metabolic states to evade the therapeutics we have in place to kill cancer cells. I will be using a combination of databases that help track the changes the cell goes through from being a normal cancer cell to a drug tolerant persister cell. In order to track these changes we use the RNAseq data to look at these transition periods and then context-specific genome-scale metabolic modeling by mapping enzyme expression onto a constraint-based metabolic network. This work would help predict which cells will go into a drug tolerant persister state and then better inform which treatments should be administered. 

As millions of others across the globe, I have had cancer impact my family. Along with accompanying my family to therapy visits, I had the opportunity to formally learn about cancer through a UCSD course. We learned about the hallmarks of cancer but I wanted to learn more about cancer recurrence and wanted to fill the gaps that the class could not teach us. Reaching out to Dr. Miyamoto was a shot in the dark as he is a renowned researcher at the University of Tsukuba who had ongoing research adjacent to these interests. 

I am going to be in Japan for approximately 7 weeks where I will stay at the University of Tsukuba so I can conduct research in person at the Institute of Medicine. By immersing myself in a foreign lab environment, I hope to grow as a learner by learning the technical aspects that my research requires but also become more adaptable to the cultural expectations that are set. I am most looking forward to meeting my mentor in person and being able to explore the surrounding Tsukuba area on the weekends. Although I am comfortable speaking Japanese with my family, I did not officially learn formal Japanese until last quarter at UCSD where I learned more about the formal structure to show respect and seniority. I hope that I’m able to use my Japanese more and grow more confident as a Japanese American. To maximize my experience, I hope to dedicate time in the lab, build connections with my mentor and the members of the lab and then take advantage of weekends to travel around the university. I hope to find a community within the university that I can explore nearby restaurants or play volleyball with!