Oscar is a rising junior at University of Massachusetts at Lowell, studying biology. His interest in biotechnology was sparked by a high school class and teacher at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. He applied and was accepted to BioBuilder's High School Apprenticeship Challenge in 2019, held that year at LabCentral in Cambridge. His biodesign project addressed high concentrations of lead in drinking water. At the poster session presentation of his project, Oscar met a researcher at Indigo Ag, a biotech company that uses microbiology and machine learning to improve crop yield and health. Oscar was hired at Indigo Ag as a summer intern. Oscar remarked on how his BioBuilder lab skills helped him in the Indigo Ag lab as an intern and at college as a biology major.
Learn more about BioBuilder's programs for students, educators, and industry professionals here 👉 https://biobuilder.org/
And follow BioBuilder on social media: https://www.facebook.com/BioBuilderFoundation/ https://twitter.com/SystemsSally https://www.youtube.com/@BioBuilder https://www.instagram.com/systems_sally/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/16132078
Oscar is a rising junior at University of Massachusetts at Lowell, studying biology. His interest in biotechnology was sparked by a high school class and teacher at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. He applied and was accepted to BioBuilder's High School Apprenticeship Challenge in 2019, held that year at LabCentral in Cambridge. His biodesign project addressed high concentrations of lead in drinking water. At the poster session presentation of his project, Oscar met a researcher at Indigo Ag, a biotech company that uses microbiology and machine learning to improve crop yield and health. Oscar was hired at Indigo Ag as a summer intern. Oscar remarked on how his BioBuilder lab skills helped him in the Indigo Ag lab as an intern and at college as a biology major.
Learn more about BioBuilder's programs for students, educators, and industry professionals here 👉 https://biobuilder.org/
And follow BioBuilder on social media: https://www.facebook.com/BioBuilderFoundation/ https://twitter.com/SystemsSally https://www.youtube.com/@BioBuilder https://www.instagram.com/systems_sally/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/16132078
Speaker 1:
Hello, and welcome to life. Changing science V Bible podcast. I'm your host a Zhan. And in today's episode, I welcome college junior Oscar Hemanez. Oscar is majoring in biology with a concentration in biotech at UMass level. He was part of the Bible apprenticeship program at lab central back in 2019, which led him to secure an internship at indigo, a GB following summer. Today, I'm gonna talk to him about how his Bible, the journey has brought him to where he is today. So let's dive right into this episode.
Speaker 2:
Okay. Tell us about your experience at Cambridge Ridge and Latin high school. Like when did you get interested in science? And I guess the follow up from that is when did you first hear about Bible?
Speaker 3:
I kind of been interested in science my whole life, like throughout school. That's always been like my favorite subject and the one I like excelled in the most. And then, um, my junior year I took honors bio and then they had a small chapter in there where we did a biotech. And what's great about Ridge is that they have a technical arts, like part of the school and they provided like a biotech course. So through honors bio, we had a biotech and then I was like, I find this really intriguing. So I'm gonna do the biotech course my second semester of my junior year. And then through there, um, Dr. Abrams, my teacher at the time for biotech, she said, um, you guys should stick around, you know, we're gonna have someone come and talk about this program, this amazing<inaudible> bio builder. So I was like, you know what? Yeah, I'll stick around. I'll, I'll see what it's about. So I stuck around and, uh, Dr. Caldo came and talked, you know, gave the whole spiel of bio builder and I, I found it really interesting and I, I applied and, you know, thankfully I got in. And
Speaker 2:
So with the honors bio, uh, which led to the biotech course, what did you cover? What certain topics did you cover?
Speaker 3:
Transcriptions translation, like all the basic, like video stuff that you learn in like gen ed transcription translation and things like that.
Speaker 2:
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. You the, what's it called? The central dogma.
Speaker 3:
Yeah. Central dogma. Yeah.
Speaker 2:
Central dog. You gotta start with that. Uh, nice. Awesome. Uh, so when you first, you know, had someone come over to this, uh, to your high school to talk about Bible during the apprenticeship program, what was the initial appeal? I guess that sort of also leading on to, like, obviously you're really interested in, in science and biology, hence you took the honor's bio class, uh, what made you, was it just curiosity about, uh, oh, Bible, this, this is something new or was this something specific about the apprenticeship program or were you like, you know, this sounds cool. Let's apply to it.
Speaker 3:
Yeah. Kinda a little bit of everything. Uh, I just wanted more lab experience, like besides in bio, in my biotech course in high school. And also like, it was just, it was just intriguing. Cause I'd never heard of the word synthetic biology prior to that. So when she mentioned that I kind of like straight up my curiosity and wanted to learn more about the program.
Speaker 2:
Yeah. Okay. No, that makes a lot of sense because obviously you're familiar with biology, biotech, biochem, et cetera, but the synthetic biology where it is, is new. And it's obviously that's someone who's interested in biology. You're like just naturally curious and you're like, okay, let's, let's check this out. How was let's I wanna hear more about your experience during the apprenticeship program. So you worked on a project designed an ingestible probiotic that will bind to lead contaminate water so that it may excrete the person's body without harming them. Tell us more about the project.
Speaker 3:
Yeah. So we all got into groups and we all had to design something that would help the world in some way. So at the time, um, Flint, Michigan, that was a place where they were struggling with having clean water and their water was contaminated with lead. So we thought we could try to brainstorm an idea to try to resolve that problem and try to see if there's a safe way, because if there it'd be hard to like change pipes and clean the water. So we wanted to think of a way to person, an individual could take to try to excrete the lead in the body.
Speaker 2:
Cool. Yeah. No, that makes sense. And so, yeah, you're developing some sort of probiotic and you worked, I presuming teams of think you mentioned this right at the side, like teams of three or four,
Speaker 3:
Uh, yeah. Like teams of four or five. Yeah.
Speaker 2:
Yeah. Okay. And then you had like a presentation towards the end, like, so you had a few weeks developed this idea. Um, you know, you, you identified a problem, you synthetics, you developed some tools and who did you present to at the end?
Speaker 3:
So we presented to, uh, people in lab central and other, uh, biotech professionals from companies and internships that came in. And
Speaker 2:
The other thing I wanted to ask you was what lab schools you did you learn during their apprenticeship program? Um, and I'm gonna follow that, that up with actually let let's start with lab skills, because you said, uh, one of the main appeals of the apprenticeship program was getting more firsthand lab experience. So what, what excited you about the lab? What,
Speaker 3:
So I learned a lot of my basic lab skills in my biotech program, but buy builder definitely helped solidifying those skills and being able to really like get them down to a T and cuz some of the things we learned is like pipetting, uh, streaking bacteria. And then we also went on to doing a restriction digest, but it definitely helped like solidify my lab skills and be able to really get it down in doing the skills correctly.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, definitely. And the more times you do it, cuz the first time you would've gone into a lab, like I, I presume this was the first time you were really pipeting and uh, streaking bacteria, et cetera. And it would've, it can be quite scary I think. Yeah. The first time in a lab with lab coats and uh, you like, and the dozens of safety forms that you have to fill out. Yeah, exactly. Um, awesome. What, what do you think was the most challenging part of the apprenticeship program?
Speaker 3:
Probably the beginning of the project, like brainstorming an idea and trying to do the research and thinking of a way to, to actually get the lead out of the body. That was definitely the most challenging part I'd have to say.
Speaker 2:
Yep. And how did you sort of overcome that? Did you have, I presume you had mentors, uh, and then you would've, you know, after school, you would've gone back home and tried to research a few papers, you know, Google is a scientist. Google is everyone's best friend.
Speaker 3:
Yeah.<laugh> yeah. So we overcame that by, uh, kind of just brainstorming as a group. That's one of the best things about working as a group is being able to like hear other people's ideas and what they have to say. And um, definitely the mentors there, they gave us a couple pointers and how, how we could work on resolving that issue. But yeah, definitely brainstorming as a group helped overcome that.
Speaker 2:
Okay. This is a bit of a broad question. How did, because you'd never before Bible, you never heard of the term synthetic biology, uh, how did Bible that apprenticeship program experience sort of help you understand what it meant to be a synthetic biologist? So what did, uh, how did your appreciation and understanding of synthetic biology change, uh, because of that program?
Speaker 3:
Yeah. So what definitely helped was, uh, the project that we did before that, like you said, I never really heard of synthetic biology. So that program definitely helped open my eyes towards it and like the brainstorming process and actually, um, doing research and how we could like manipulate like in organisms, like DNA to help solve and solve like an issue.
Speaker 2:
Once you finished the apprenticeship program, you went on to do an internship with, uh, indigo. Yeah. One. How, how did that come about? How, how was, um, I, I presume your experience with Bible that really helped you getting that internship because this internship was, it was right after high school.
Speaker 3:
Uh, yeah, the summer, the summer, that
Speaker 2:
Summer. Yeah, the summer after. And it's uh, you know, many years ago I tried looking for an internship in biotech after high school and it's, it's not easy<laugh> yeah. So how, how do you think buy helped in that? And what was your role at indigo?
Speaker 3:
Yeah. Buy definitely helped a lot cuz besides learning like lab math and like, uh, lab etiquette and lab skills, they also helped with, um, working on our resumes and cover letters to apply for these internships through, um, bio builder. So that helped a lot. Yeah. At indigo I was a research and scientific insights intern. And what indigo is, it's a biotech company based in Charlestown that, that works with, uh, INO microbial communities to help, uh, benefit crop growth for farmers. So through there I was helping them with their samples and through like plant processing and helping them with one of the projects that they were doing at the time.
Speaker 2:
Awesome. That's that's such great experience you had before going to college by place indigo. Amazing. How did, how much did Bible influence, uh, your decision in choosing college majors and also ultimately the college you went to?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, so it was my junior year, so it definitely helped solidify knowing that I wanted to have a concentration in biotech, for sure. I always knew I wanted to do something with science. So my junior year I was thinking, oh, I'll do biology, but my biotech course and Bible definitely helped me choose like a certain path, I guess. So I think biotech was the way to go
Speaker 2:
Yeah. Ago. Yeah. Like, you know, biology is a, is a big field. Yeah. It's something sometimes hard to like, cause I didn't really specialize in, in biotech until like second end of second year of uni. So it's it's okay. So Bible gave you the direction that and confidence that okay. Biotech is sort of the specialization within the field of biology that I, that I want to get into. Okay. The next question I wanna ask is, so you enter, you know, your first year of, of uh, college and when you are taking some of the biotech courses, uh, or any lab course, for example, cause I'm sure you have labs in chemistry and um, other subjects. Do you think your experience with, uh, the apprenticeship program, did you feel because you had that experience, did you feel more comfortable? Um, in first year of uni, uh, with some of the basic biotech concepts, as well as lab techniques, did you feel you were maybe a bit ahead of the curve
Speaker 3:
For sure? Well, my first year of college, it was all online at home, but definitely when I came back my second year and I had a organic chemistry lab and experimental Methodist labs, which is, was basically just like a biology lab course I definitely was above the curve. I, I knew how to pipette already. I knew I had to street bacteria. I've done gel electrophoresis, uh, restriction digest, which we did in bio builder as well. So I was definitely, I had a, I had a, sorry, I had a lot of prior knowledge with my belted course in bodybuilder, definitely going into my, going into these labs.
Speaker 2:
Then the next thing I wanna ask you is, okay, so your two years into your, your undergrad degree to your two outta four, what are, what are you looking forward to the most in the next two years? Because now you'll have an opportunity at UMass to sort of dive deep into the biotech, take those specialized courses and really put your, uh, like what you've learned so far and what you've also learned during the apprenticeship program a few years ago, uh, to the test really, cuz you get to sort of develop you, you really get into like the bioengineering side of things. So what are you looking forward to the most?
Speaker 3:
Definitely the more like intense work of in the wet lab, the more cuz I've already done, like all the basic stuff, but definitely doing a lot more challenging things like in my biochem, uh, lab and the specific courses for the biotech. So that's gonna be, I'm definitely looking forward to that. And throughout the years, probably like, um, trying to narrow down in what specific field of research. So maybe those courses will help me narrow down. What, what I really wanna specify my research in later on in life.
Speaker 2:
Makes sense. Yeah. Cuz there's lots of specializations within biotech as well. Uh it's it's a broad field. Okay. Now that, that makes a lot of sense. And do you see yourself, um, you know, coming back to BI builder either, either, you know, as a mentor or a teaching assistant, et cetera.
Speaker 3:
Oh, do I see myself coming back? Yeah, yeah. Uh, maybe the near future. Cause I always, I wasn't sure if teaching was a thing of mine, but you never know. Only time could tell maybe, you know, five years from now. I actually don't want to work in lab. Maybe I want to teach. So I definitely see myself coming back and maybe being a mentor at bio builder for sure.
Speaker 2:
Definitely. And I guess that leads on to one of the last questions is what advice would you give current high school students looking to take part in the apprenticeship program,
Speaker 3:
Be open minded and just give it a shot. Cuz through just throughout Bible itself, I open a door for like a lot of opportunities that I had with internships, networking, meeting, new people. And you just, if it, even if it's like lab, things are not for you, it's kind of, you definitely learn a lot. You learn a new field of biology, synthetic biology, and you learn basic stuff like basic lab skills, like pipetting, you learn how to work on a resume. And then at the very end you get to present, you know, project in front of all these professionals in their respected field. So I'd definitely be open minded to it and definitely give it a shot.
Speaker 2:
I want to go back, uh, and maybe talk just a few more minutes on a bit more with indigo. So I don't think I asked you what lab techniques did you learn? Uh, at indigo?
Speaker 3:
Yeah. So at indigo we did, um, I was working most of the time under the fume hood. So I'd be processing their plans by chopping up the samples that they had in putting it into a Microcenter Fuge tube and then putting them in the, in the 80 minus 80 degree, uh, freezer. But other than that, it was kind of a lot of similar techniques. I learned through bio builder that I was able to apply in in at indigo.
Speaker 2:
Thanks once again, to Oscar for joining me today, I loved his comment on how brainstorming is the best way to learn as it gives an insight into how students learn and grow a scientist over the course of the apprenticeship program, they get into groups, identify a problem, brainstorm ideas, and then try to come up with a Sy bio solution. I believe this episode will be useful for parents and students interested in the apprenticeship program. If you would like to learn more about anything Oscar and I discussed today, please refer to the show notes, join me for the next buyer builder podcast. We'll welcome. Another wonderful guest whose career has been influenced by buyer builders, life, changing science. See you next time.