Matthew Masiello spent the summer interning with our tissue bank at Windber Research Institute. He will be pursuing a degree in International Relations from
By Matthew Masiello
As high school was coming to an end, I, as well as a multitude of my peers was on the look for summer jobs, searching for positions that would sustain us throughout the summer and hopefully be able to support maybe a fraction of the total cost of the college that was approaching in the fall. It just so happened that as my friends found themselves working in restaurants, manual labor, or totally bypassing the opportunity to work during the summer before their new scholarly life, I found myself walking into the doors at Windber Research Institute ready to begin my internship within the tissue bank.
The tissue bank at WRI provides the optimal isothermal freezer space for storing blood, tissue, and DNA samples. Over the past decade the tissue bank has gone from great to greater and to maintain such levels of efficiency and reliability certain procedures are instilled to monitor the isothermal freezers and their samples inside. So as an intern, my assignment was to perform a Quality Assurance project on the mass amount of DNA samples that the freezers contain, meaning that I was to sort through boxes of DNA, confirming specific sample locations and identification with the extensive software program that accounts for all samples. Up front, it was a task I was ready to embrace, however, I do suppose every job comes with its own fair share of difficulties and mine just happened to be enduring cold hands/fingertips due to handling samples kept at -80° Celsius or less and squinting through dry eyes because of my proximity to the dry ice that I used daily to perform my work. However, through determination and hand-warmers I accomplished my task and felt as though I was contributing to an already efficient system.
Another task I had the opportunity to explore was blood processing. This procedure involves centrifuging, labeling, aliquoting and scanning the samples into a sample management software program. Efficiency and organization were in place, common themes at the tissue bank. Honestly, this process was a humbling experience at the beginning of my time at WRI. It would have never come across my mind if I had worked at any other sort of job that my hands resemble the San Andreas Fault when it came to using the pipette to draw from the sample tube. Truly, only at a tissue bank do you find what your actual natural abilities are. Thankfully, at the same rate I found myself truly enjoying the process as I was becoming better at handling the pipette and more and more efficient with the task at hand.
My internship at WRI’s tissue bank was not only scientifically satisfying, but also prepped me for what I should expect with any sort of occupation I might find myself in the future. Efficient management and clear-cut organization are key factors to any system that strives to be the best and both are clearly exemplified at the tissue bank, and I will guarantee that I remember my time here and use the skills and styles that I developed and apply them to any sort of work I find myself conducting in the approaching years.
