Research fellow: Hannah Sheehan
Hometown: North Andover, MA
School: University of Rhode Island
Major: Biological Sciences, Cell and Molecular Biology; Chemistry minor
Mentor: Steve Irvine
Project: Temperature effects on marine invertebrate physiology

URI senior Hannah Sheehan is spending her 2016 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF), investigating protein expression and changes in sea squirts under climate change conditions.

The project involves maintaining the sea squirts, invertebrate filter feeders, at two different temperatures and assessing expressed proteins and tracking any changes that take place. The work involves multiple lab procedures, using the ovaries and testes of the sea squirts.

“When you’re doing it 40 hours a week, you get a lot more done. I’m learning more in 10 weeks than all of last year.”

Gaining work experience in a lab since last spring, Sheehan says she is trying to figure out which path she wants to pursue — medical researcher or physician.

“I wanted to do the SURF program to see if research is for me,” explains Sheehan, about half way through the 10-week SURF experience. “So far, I’m really loving it. Committing to research from 9 to 5, every day, all day, is very different. And, it gives me an idea of what it would be like as a job.”

Among the techniques and skills she practices in the sea squirt project, Sheehan conducts polymerase chain reaction (PCR), taking a sample of DNA and amplifying it so there is a larger amount DNA for analyzing. She also performs RNA extraction, where a piece of animal tissue is processed to get rid of anything in the sample that is not RNA.

Sheehan says she appreciates the opportunity the SURF program provides to do research full time rather than having to balance academics during the school year, which means working in the lab only an hour or two at a time.

“When you’re doing it 40 hours a week, you get a lot more done,” explains Sheehan. “I’m learning more in 10 weeks than all of last year.”

Although uncertain about which field she will choose, Sheehan says the hands-on experience of working in labs has been life changing. She hated science in high school.

Once at college, Sheehan started off in kinesiology, then changed to biology after taking a class. As she headed off in the new direction, Sheehan added cell and molecular biology, realizing in her sophomore year that she wanted to be either a doctor or researcher.

Story and photo by Amy Dunkle