---

The Interview:

Karen: Tell me about the research you're involved with on campus. What do you work on?

Sohini: I’m a member of the Sirotkin lab, and my research focuses on the role of the GluN2B subunit of NMDA receptors in forebrain neurogenesis, using zebrafish as a model organism.By analyzing neuronal density in grin2B^(-/-) zebrafish mutants within structures homologous to those implicated in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we aim to gain a deeper understanding of the subunit’s role in neurodevelopment and its implications for ASD.

How long have you been in the Sirotkin lab? Did you have prior research experience?

I joined the lab in the fall semester of my sophomore year, fall 2022. I didn't have any experience going into Sirotkin Lab. I was a transfer student and came to Stony Brook in spring semester 2022 after having spent a semester at Fordham University. But I knew I wanted to be part of a research lab even from high school. I was always interested in neuroscience, and I joined Neuroscience Axis at Stony Brook. I followed the advice to get into research as soon as you can, even if you don't know what you're doing at first. And that has worked out for me!

Did you participate in summer research?

Yes, in the summer after joined the Sirotkin lab, I volunteered to come in here and there. And then this past summer, I was part of the URECA summer program. That was much more involved, and I had enough experience at that point where I was able to do my own project. 

Being 9 to 5 in lab and having that commitment was great for me. But I think what was the best part for me is that I was given the flexibility to be able to figure things out on my own. Often when you are starting out in research, you're just assisting someone on a project, and you don't get to do your own data analysis. You don't get to do your own planning. So having this project gave me the room to express myself as a scientist and gave me a chance to think about doing data analysis in a different way, using ImageJ. I was able to come up with something that sped up my project a lot.  So, looking back, I think having that time to focus on the project and think about it gives you the space to be innovative. That's something that I was not able to do before, and that was made possible through participation in the summer program. 

Are you doing an honors  thesis? 

Yes. For undergrad biology honors, you have to hand in  a 20 to 25 page report of the research that you've been doing. So I'm essentially writing a report summarizing the work that I've done for URECA in the Sirotkin lab, and the continuation of that project in the last several months.

Have you had any chances to present your work?

Yes, I participated in the 2024 Summer Symposium and I enjoyed the experience. You get to see what your peers have been doing, and you're also learning the skills to be able to consolidate all this work that you've been doing into this short, presentable format. You yourself know all the complexities of what you've been doing, and it's hard to not want to speak about all the details that you find cool. But I think that learning how to present something that is super complicated in a more digestible way is a great skill to develop. 

That was the first time I presented my own work in a poster form, and I had the chance to practice my scientfic communication skills. And then in the fall I was able to present again at a Chemical and Biology Research Info Day (CBTP/Chemical Biology Training Program) event. That was fun too because that event was oriented to students who may not have been involved in research yet, so I got the chance to talk to some freshmen students about how I got involved in research, how to take the first step of contacting potential faculty mentors, etc.

What are your future plans?

I hope to be graduating in a couple of weeks. I did apply this past fall for a Fulbright Scholarship to do research related to what I work on now, and I’m currently waiting to hear the results. Right now, and for the spring semester, I’ll be studying for my MCAT. It helped that I could graduate early because studying for MCATs is a huge time commitment. Long-term, I do plan to apply to medical school.

What would you say has been your favorite part of doing research? 

I think my favorite part about doing research is the data analysis. Part of research involves failure. You become familiar long and hard with failure—over and over again! Your experiments may not come out right for whatever reason, or samples degrade, or there are small mistakes, trip-ups. …But despite all of these hurdles, I think getting to the end goal, and finally figuring out what's happening, what you've been looking for, is what made me the happiest at the end. After all that work, it’s very satisfying to see that you got something great out of it, that you figured something out.

What advice would you give in general to students about research? 

Persistence is important, in many things. If you don't get a reply back to your first email, keep emailing until you're finding something that's good for you. Don’t worry if it takes you longer than someone else. Everyone has their own path.

What was your experience as an undergraduate mentee?

Dr. Sirotkin has been great. He gives a lot of good advice to undergraduate students. He helps you think like a scientist. He'll ask you a lot of questions to make sure that you understand what you're doing. And we have a weekly lab meeting, so that even if you're super new, he’ll have you do a presentation on what you learned and ask you questions. These meetings keep you on track to understand what you’re learning, what you should be understanding as a scientist, even at the beginning stages of being in lab.   

I've made a lot of acquaintances and friends in the lab over the past 2 years, and a lot of them, even if they didn't work with me directly on the projects, have been great connections. I've been able to ask about classes, or for advice on applications. In our lab, we have master’s students, PhD students (even a PhD student who is also an MD!), other undergrads—a lot of different people in a lot of different fields. And it's very helpful to be able to talk to others and learn from other people's experiences. Being part of a lab gives you that community.

Stephanie Laderwager, my graduate student mentor, had been an undergrad in the Sirotkin Lab. And so she did the exact same things that I'm doing now, took all the same classes. So having that really close mentor who's done the exact same things that you've done and understands it, is such a benefit.  Just having this community of people, all the professional connections you make from being part of a research lab for so long, is priceless. I'm appreciative to everyone in the Sirotkin Lab.

What would you say was the main benefit of being involved in research for your education overall?

There's so much I would have missed out on if I didn't do research!

I have taken a lot of different lab courses. I have a neuroscience specialization so I've taken BIO 204, BIO 205… . I've taken neurobio lab. I'm taking Orgo lab right now, and you know all those classes are great. But I think once I got to the Sirotkin Lab, I realized  that I didn't actually know how to do a lot of these things I had “learned” in those lab classes. I had just memorized it and practiced it once, and then not done that skill again. Using a pipette, for example, is a basic skill. But in your intro classes, you do it only a few times once a week. But once you join a research lab, you're doing these techniques all the time. That's when you know how to use the techniques. And you learn from having this extensive practice.

You also learn a lot from writing reports on something that you've actually done. It's not the same as a lab class experience where you’re expected to follow everything like a cookbook. When you’re doing your own research, you're adjusting your data analysis based off your results, and you know what errors might have occurred. You have to literally write everything down and there’s no grade, there's no one asking you to be responsible but you learn the responsibility of writing things down from your own mistakes. I think it's a lot more impactful because you're working towards something that you're passionate about in particular. And you have to basically figure it out versus having someone telling you how to do it: so, self-learning and becoming independent is a important part or take away from doing undergraduate research, and something that I learned from the Sirotkin Lab.  

I’ve enjoyed a lot of my classroom experiences. I was a TA for BIO 205. I do enjoy that class, and I do think that it's great for learning initial steps of science, but it's cool to also to have become involved in undergrad research and to actually be able to apply the things that you learn at an advanced level.