Student Spotlight: Sachin Subhash Narode

UTSA Student Spotlight

Name: Sachin Subhash Narode
Major: Biology
School: University of Texas at San Antonio

Semester of Internship: Summer 2007
Internship Site: Acambis Inc. (Biotech)

What did you do?
I had a very pleasant experience working at Acambis Incorporated, located in Boston. Acambis is a leading vaccine company based in the UK and the US. They develop novel vaccines that address significant unmet medical needs or substantially improve upon current standards of care.
I worked on " ACAM-CDIFF™", the only vaccine in development against Clostridium difficile bacteria, a leading cause of hospital-acquired infections. C. difficile is estimated to cause at least 360,000 cases of C. difficile-associated disease in the US alone, and annual costs to US and European healthcare systems are estimated to be in excess of $7 billion a year.
I entered the lab with very little basic skills and 6 months later I mastered basic methods in Molecular Biology; protein expression techniques, plasmid purification, Transformation, protein detection and quantification methods. In addition I successfully performed small-scale purification of some of his-tagged antigens on mini- Ni- columns.

What did you gain from your internship experience?
I found that it was very interesting for me even though it was bit difficult since I had to work as well as study. I found that it was a very good way to learn real challenges posed in Biotech companies but you really have to be committed to study and keep up with research projects.
I gained experience working in a competitive environment as well as working in a team to achieve project goals in defined time periods. I am very thankful to my lab mates, and especially Dr. Kirill Kalnin who showed support and helped me to learn and understand better.

Why would you recommend this opportunity to other students?
All experiences are valuable in scientific fields, but having an experience with a project in a company prepares you for success and helps you achieve given goals.