BioMarin Field Trip Reflection
BioMarin was founded by two biotechnology experts, Christopher Starr and Grant W. Dennison Jr, in March of 1997. It is now the world leader in developing innovative biopharmaceuticals for rare diseases driven by gene causes. Their core research is on enzyme replacement therapies otherwise known as ERT's. From that research, they have developed five drugs that are currently available on the market that are all orphan drugs. Orphan drugs are medicinal products intended for diagnosis, prevention or treatment of life-threatening or very serious diseases or disorders that are rare.
On the field trip, we saw many complex machines used to complete specific tasks such as protein purification. The thing was that, even though I found the field trip intriguing, I didn't really understand many of the things they showed us. In class, we have had little to no background about biotechnology and I felt like a huge wave of information was rushed upon us in a short period of days. After the field trip however, we discussed some of the things we saw in the labs in more detail. We discussed how their drugs are made such as HPLC, (high pressure liquid chromatography) which is a process in which proteins are separated into useful proteins and useless proteins by using their protein charge. This process is measured by a spectrophotometer. We also discussed analytic chemistry by looking at graphs that have spikes in them and how to make the spikes go away. We also talked about how, at BioMarin,they grow cell cultures by looking at cell culture incubators.
On the field trip, we saw many complex machines used to complete specific tasks such as protein purification. The thing was that, even though I found the field trip intriguing, I didn't really understand many of the things they showed us. In class, we have had little to no background about biotechnology and I felt like a huge wave of information was rushed upon us in a short period of days. After the field trip however, we discussed some of the things we saw in the labs in more detail. We discussed how their drugs are made such as HPLC, (high pressure liquid chromatography) which is a process in which proteins are separated into useful proteins and useless proteins by using their protein charge. This process is measured by a spectrophotometer. We also discussed analytic chemistry by looking at graphs that have spikes in them and how to make the spikes go away. We also talked about how, at BioMarin,they grow cell cultures by looking at cell culture incubators.
Stafford Lake Reflection
There are a number of ecological problems at Stafford Lake. One is that there is a small stream that flows out to the river which has caused erosion and is taking a large amount of sediment to the lake which contaminates the drinking water. They are currently repairing the creek to make the stream meander more naturally and also laying down sheet mulch to prevent growth of invasive species. I worked on stream restoration, specifically the component of soil bio-engineering. Our work was on the Integrated Pest approach because it used natural measures to solve the problems instead of taking chemical measures. This method will break down and become well integrated into the ecosystem. I enjoyed interacting with my peers during the entirety of the field trip and feeling like I was making a difference, no matter how little it was.