During the last eight weeks, I have had the opportunity to work as an intern with Perfinity Biosciences in West Lafayette, Indiana. Since last August, I have worked with Perfinity through Wabash’s Center for Innovation, Business, and Entrepreneurship (CIBE) as their team lead alongside three other innovation consultants: Cooper Cochran, Nathan Powell, and Owen Volk. Our team’s primary focus was on assisting Perfinity with their research and development workload, user manuals and their product showcase presentations. Throughout this summer, my time has been dedicated to working in Perfinity’s lab on the development of products that allow researchers to digest, capture, and extract proteins’ constituent peptides from plasma samples. Additionally, we have dedicated a substantial amount of time to a workflow that enables the capture of oligonucleotides from similarly prepared samples.
Products of this nature that help eliminate a sample’s “background noise” and allow you to quantify specific analytes have grown in demand as biologic drugs, such as monoclonal antibodies, have become more important to combating chronic diseases.
On top of my experience completing research, I have gained valuable analytical skills through operating and maintaining a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) machine. Having the opportunity to work with sophisticated lab equipment is
uncommon for undergraduate students, so I am very grateful to have had this experience. Most importantly, this opportunity has allowed me to explore my love for science in a professional setting while also continuing to improve my leadership and interpersonal skills.
Moving forward, I hope to apply what I have learned throughout this internship to my future career goals, as well as my ongoing work with Perfinity throughout the upcoming academic year. I want to extend my gratitude to Kevin Meyer, Chad Maschinot, Joe Chutka, and Xavier St. Myer for their eagerness to help me grow as a student and employee throughout this process. Additionally, I would like to thank Cassie Hagan, the CIBE team, and the Small Business Internship Fund. I can’t wait to update you all again next summer!
