The end goal of any research is to be able to present your findings to an audience, and I had to give an oral presentation along with one of my team members. This was a hard task because most of our results were negative. Also, I did not believe that I had the knowledge to give a well-informed presentation, but with Dr. Brokaw\u2019s guidance, we were able to develop a well-formed presentation. I still remember the question one of judges asked me, \u201cWhy is this research important?\u201d I blanked. I was able to come up with a quick response, but I had not thought about the importance of the research that I was conducting before this moment.<\/p>\n I may still not completely understand the impact this research with the Mentzelia<\/em> team had on plant biology, but I learned so much during my first year of participating in research. I learned that consistency, patience, and determination are key characteristics that are developed during lab work. I also learned that I enjoy research. I began clueless, and, by the end of the year, I was able to give an oral presentation over the information. The journey of research is exciting. The end results are unknown and anything can happen. This is why I decided to continue research.<\/p>\n I am now working with Dr. (Diana) Flanagan on the identification of unknown bacterial isolates from Sorcerer\u2019s Cave. At first it seemed like this semester of research was going to be similar to my previous experience because the gel electrophoreses was negative or as a team we had inconsistent results. We had to use different methods to isolate DNA in addition to running new PCR reactions and gel electrophoreses. But after changes to the methods, we had positive results that could be sequenced, and we were able to present our findings to the ACU Biology Research Club at the fall research poster session. This research has been exciting because we are working alongside Dr. (Jennifer) Huddleston\u2019s research teams, who are testing for antibiotic resistance in the same unknown bacterial isolates. It has been a good semester of research so far, but as a team, we hope to identify more unknown bacterial isolates before the ACU Spring Research Festival and the Texas ASM (American Society for Microbiology) Meetings. I am so glad I decided to join a research team, because it has been a rewarding experience that I would have not had doing any other extracurricular activity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Research did not cross my mind before coming to ACU because I didn\u2019t enjoy labs in high school, so I wasn\u2019t interested. However, my freshman year I had classes with several sophomores, who would often talk about the research they … Continue reading ![\"Hofsommer](\"http:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/biologyresearch\/files\/2016\/12\/Hofsommer-et-al.-2016b.jpg\")
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