主要研究 今天

Editor’s note: This is one in a series we call “The Places They’ll Go” that has graduating seniors sharing their plans for the future.

The messages we receive when we’re young can stay with us — the things people tell us or suggest are true. David Walker ’20 came out of high school thinking he wasn’t “intelligent enough” to go into medicine. Then he got to 主要研究 and went to work in the lab of Sarah Walker (no relation), 分子学助理教授, 细胞, 生物医学科学, 他的想法开始改变.

“在实验室工作, 我意识到我有做研究的技能和热情, and my goal of going into medicine actually seemed like a possibility for me,沃克说。. “这似乎是对高中时代的我的挑战, and I decided to head down that path until the people who had made me think I wasn’t smart enough were proven right, 很长一段时间, 在我的脑海里，我以为他们是.” 

“我喜欢研究，因为它很难! 事情并不总是如你所愿."

他们没有. Walker graduated in May with a degree in biomedical sciences, medical and veterinary option. On June 8 he begins a two-year commitment in the cardiology department at Boston Children’s Hospital, 研究心脏干细胞. 在那之后，他计划去医学院.

大二的时候, Walker had learned that professor Walker was coming to 主要研究 and that he could try to join her lab. 他整个夏天都在研究她感兴趣的领域，然后, 在他们第一次见面的时候, 给她带来了一个项目的想法.

莎拉·沃克的研究重点是乳腺癌和卵巢癌. David Walker’s idea was to take the role a protein called STAT3 plays in ovarian cancer growth and combine it with an assay to test the cancer’s ability to spread.

“Professor Walker took a chance on me, and she gave me a lot of freedom on my project,沃克说。. “The work that she helped me to produce in her lab is a major contributor to why I received an offer from Boston Children’s.为了支持他的工作, he received an Undergraduate 研究 Award in 2018  and a Summer Undergraduate 研究 Fellowship in 2019 from the 哈默尔本科生研究中心.

Walker’s challenge to his high school self didn’t stop with getting that research job. He became an advanced EMT and is a crew chief with McGregor Memorial EMS in Durham. 他也是联合国红十字会的主席, 负责校园献血活动的组织, 也是Phi Sigma生物荣誉协会的主席, 哪个为生物系学生提供辅导.

而他的目标是成为一名医生, 他在沃克实验室的经历巩固了他对研究的热爱, 他希望找到一种方法让它成为他未来的一部分.

“我喜欢研究，因为它很难! 事情并不总是如你所愿，”沃克说. “When you finally figure out what’s wrong with an experiment and get it to work after weeks of trying, or the first time you try something that works completely as expected, 这种成就感是难以置信的.”

Walker admits it was disappointing to have his college career at 主要研究 cut short, 但他说，这改变了他的观点.

“I am amazed at the speed at which people were able to change their lives and come together over a crisis. 甚至在春假之前, new protocols and precautions were coming out weekly to try and keep both providers and the public safe,沃克说。. “医疗保健专业人员非常出色. It really gives me hope for the future that this kind of response is possible.”