{"id":468,"date":"2014-08-08T14:22:24","date_gmt":"2014-08-08T14:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/?p=468"},"modified":"2014-08-08T14:22:24","modified_gmt":"2014-08-08T14:22:24","slug":"korbin-west-16-perfinity-biosciences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/2014\/08\/08\/korbin-west-16-perfinity-biosciences\/","title":{"rendered":"Korbin West \u201916- Perfinity Biosciences"},"content":{"rendered":"

Korbin West \u201916 –<\/em>Since I started my internship, I\u2019m quickly learning how little I really know about chemistry. And that is a fantastic feeling. While my internship is flying by, I\u2019m trying to pick up as much as I can because there is no better learning environment than an immersive one. For the past month I\u2019ve been working in Perfinity Biosciences, a small bioscience company in West Lafayette. Perfinity mainly focuses on proteomics, the study of proteins. Every person is made of tons and tons of proteins, just like the hemoglobin in our blood or the insulin in our pancreas. However, there is still so much the world doesn\u2019t know about proteins, which is where Perfinity steps in.<\/p>\n

\"Korbin<\/p>\n

Without getting too technical, we find ways to break down and analyze these proteins so others can discover more information about them. Imagine you find a newspaper that has been crumpled up into a ball, this will be our example protein. To be able to read the paper (a.k.a. extract information from the protein), we have to find a way to un-crumple it without ruining it. In a way, this is what Perfinity does for other researchers\/drug companies, so that they can find new ways to battle diseases and discover more secrets of the body.<\/p>\n

As an intern, I spend a lot of my time helping out wherever I can. The majority of my time is spent in the lab, where I have various responsibilities. My daily activities range from making stock solutions for our spectroscopy equipment to validating old protocols to researching new ones. My time here has greatly helped me develop my chemistry skill set, as well as strengthening my abilities in many other aspects. Although some of my work is quite challenging, I\u2019m continually learning from my co-workers how to approach these issues and I\u2019m picking up plenty of new techniques and methods. However, just like any liberal arts experience, I\u2019m learning much more than just the chemistry behind it. Whether it\u2019s discussing the economics behind our product, presenting results at company meetings, or anything in-between, I\u2019m constantly rounding out my experience.<\/p>\n

The past couple weeks have been an absolutely incredible time for me. As I\u2019m sure with many of my fellow classmates, I continually wonder if I\u2019m going in the right field. I would ask myself \u201cwhat if I can\u2019t stand working in the lab all day?\u201d or \u201cwhat if I don\u2019t have what it takes to make it?\u201d Now, I\u2019m happy to say that I don\u2019t find myself asking these questions anymore. I\u2019ve enjoyed every second of my time here at Perfinity and although I\u2019m not nearly done with working to improve my skills and proficiency in chemistry, I feel confident in my decision to pursue chemistry.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to thank Wabash College and Lilly Endowment, Inc. for their wonderful support and making this opportunity available for me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Korbin West \u201916 –Since I started my internship, I\u2019m quickly learning how little I really know about chemistry. And that is a fantastic feeling. While my internship is flying by, I\u2019m trying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[64,82,12,57],"class_list":["post-468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-biology","tag-chemistry","tag-lilly-endowment","tag-research"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2014\/08\/Korbin-West-Summer-Internship-2014-1024x768.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":471,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions\/471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}