Scientists are used to playing the long game, chipping away at a small part of a much larger scientific question, often over the course of many years. Projects that go from the lab to the real world in the span of just a few months are practically unheard of. But that鈥檚 exactly what a group of graduate students recently experienced while working on , led by professors Martin Schmeing, Director of the Centre de recherche en biologie structurale (CRBS), and Don van Meyel, Director of the Centre for Translational Biology at the Research Institute of the 平特五不中 Health Centre (RI-MUHC.)
The large team of CRBS scientists is producing made-at-平特五不中 kits for the MUHC testing lab as part of a pilot project that could help boost testing capacity across Canada, through a .
鈥淓veryone really came together and pushed this through at a pace that鈥檚 unprecedented, as least in my two- or three-year career,鈥� says Leo Shen, who was recruited to help out with the project by his supervisor, biochemistry professor Jerry Pelletier. The Vancouver native, who just completed his MSc in Biochemistry and will be starting medical school at Johns Hopkins in the fall, never dreamed things could move so quickly. 鈥淲hen I was doing my Master鈥檚, I didn鈥檛 think that my own science or any of the work I was doing in the lab at the time would be applicable to the clinic straightaway.鈥�
An opportunity to help
Ditto for Kaleena Basran, a first-year chemistry PhD student in Nathan Luedtke鈥檚 lab, who was one of the first students to join the project back in March. 鈥淚 never thought we鈥檇 be able to help,鈥� says Kaleena, who is originally from Ottawa.
When campus shut down on March 13, like many students, Kaleena found herself suddenly unable to access her lab. Then she got a call from Dr. Luedtke. 鈥淪ince I鈥檓 new to the field of DNA chemistry, he suggested this was a really good way for me to get into it quickly,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 was super excited. It seemed like such a great opportunity to help and also just get back into the swing of working in a lab again, which I really enjoy.鈥�
Like Kaleena, fellow Ottawa native and fourth-year PhD student Andrew Bayne was recruited early in the project. 鈥淚 was reading the news and hearing all the public health statistics, so when we had the opportunity to contribute to something like that, there was no question for me,鈥� says Andrew, who鈥檚 in the lab of pharmacology professor Jean-Fran莽ois Trempe. 鈥淭his was the perfect use of the skills that I have been working to develop for the last several years.鈥�
At first, Leo admits, he didn鈥檛 know what he was getting himself into. 鈥淚 thought it would be a two- or three-day thing where I would just do RT-PCR testing,鈥� he recalls, referring to the part of the COVID-19 test that detects the virus in a sample. 鈥淏ut then the more I spoke with Martin, the more it became clear that this was a pretty titanic endeavour in terms of actually creating a kit that can substitute for what's being used currently across Canada.鈥�
Before he knew it, his Master鈥檚 wrap-up was on ice and he was putting all his time into the project. Same for Andrew and Kaleena, who also put their own projects aside in order to focus on the test-kit project.
Learning curve
That鈥檚 not to say it was all smooth sailing.
First of all, they had to get used to the new way of working in the lab 鈥� masks, PPE, social distancing, safety protocols. 鈥淚 used to take for granted being able to walk to another lab and just ask somebody who I knew would be there: 鈥楥an I use this machine now?鈥欌�� says Andrew. 鈥淣ow there are a lot of new booking procedures to make sure the number of people is limited.鈥�
Then there were the actual technical skills. 鈥淎t first it was a lot of learning,鈥� says Kaleena. 鈥淔or instance, when you have the viral RNA from a patient sample, you need to be able to extract it out of the cells. So I had the opportunity to make these magnetic nanoparticles, which is totally not my area of chemistry. But I said to myself 鈥業 can do this.鈥� And it鈥檚 working out really well.鈥� In her pre-COVID life, Kaleena was working on a probe that lights up when bound to specific DNA sequences in a bacterial genome, which would eventually allow hospital labs to quickly identify bacterial strands.
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Life lessons
The learning has gone way beyond lab skills for these grad students, often in surprising ways.
They were all amazed at the amount of work that goes into coordinating a large project like this, which involved teams from both the Faculties of Medicine and Science, as well as hospital labs and outside suppliers. 鈥淭his project made me surprisingly more efficient in the lab, and also more effective at communicating within and across teams to push things forward,鈥� says Andrew.
Kaleena says the experience has given her a glimpse into what working in industry would be like. 鈥淚'm in charge of ordering all the supplies that we need for the primers and probes that we're making, as well as the beads. So I got really thrown in there in terms of how to do ordering and everything,鈥� she says. 鈥淚ndustry is something that I was considering, so it was really nice to see right from the start what it feels like.鈥�
It was also a real eye opener for them to see what happens after a project leaves the lab.
A return to normal
Now that the test kits have been delivered, the students have been slowly returning to their own projects, or starting new adventures.
Leo had to wrap up a little earlier so he could spend some time with his family on the west coast before starting med school. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a little bit bittersweet that I'm leaving early,鈥� he says. 鈥淢artin and Don have taught me so much. And I鈥檓 grateful to my own supervisor Jerry for letting me get involved at the cost of making some progress on my own project. It really felt like a privilege to be involved.鈥�
Kaleena, who is continuing to work on the project for the time being but will gradually transition back to her own PhD project in the coming weeks, feels like she鈥檚 been part of something historic: 鈥淚鈥檒l be able to tell people in the future when they鈥檙e learning about it in history that we were able to contribute to the fight against this,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really great.