Surrounded by scrub caps, lab coats, graph charts, and microscopes, Illinois State University junior biological science major Hope Omoniyi spent her summer researching pancreatic cancer at world-renowned Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
“Pancreatic cancer is a really deadly cancer, and it’s really hard to study,” Omoniyi said. “I was working to see the precancerous lesions called PanIN and how they progress as people age.”
Omoniyi worked with a team that included a mentor, a principal investigator (PI), and a cohort of 13-fellow summer interns from across the country. However, her summer research was primarily independent, allowing her the freedom to choose her lab hours and the parameters she used to research pancreatic cancer.
“Most of my days consisted of independent research involving looking at H and E slides, which are stained slides of pancreatic cells, and identifying the structures in the cells or the tissue sample,” Omoniyi said.
Working at Johns Hopkins also helped Omoniyi develop new skills by shadowing doctors and learning how to code.
“I had to learn how to code using MATLAB,” Omoniyi said. “CODA is the function that my PI developed using MATLAB here at Johns Hopkins to code and calculate cell density and conduct tissue analysis.”
Despite facing new challenges, Omoniyi reminded herself that she had been selected for a reason. She said her preparation at Illinois State University provided her with confidence in her summer work with some of the world’s top physicians.
Interning at Johns Hopkins also helped Omoniyi gain a clearer understanding of her future career path.
“I really want to be doing more research,” Omoniyi said. “I knew I wanted to be a medical doctor, but I fell in love with research this summer.”
It’s not often that an undergraduate underclassman is given the chance to intern at one of the world’s best research hospitals. Omoniyi learned about this opportunity from a friend and decided to take the chance and apply. Her advice to students is to go after what you want to accomplish.
“Don’t be shy,” Omoniyi said. “I could have gotten a lot more opportunities earlier if I hadn’t been shy and had gone after what I wanted.”
She returned to Illinois State for her junior year feeling more prepared than ever because of her experiences at Johns Hopkins and the new skills she gained.
Although research was a highlight of Omoniyi’s summer, getting to explore a new city and spend time with the other interns was also impactful.
“Everybody would leave their doors open in the dorms we were staying at. After lab, I would literally just walk into other people’s apartments and sit down and see what other people were up to. We would also go to the gym and explore the city together,” Omoniyi said.
Omoniyi presented her summer research findings in a final presentation to her peers, Ph.D. students, her PI, and her mentor.
“I really liked the people that I met and the experiences I gained this summer,” Omoniyi said. “The team still keeps in contact. I know it was just this summer, but I hope that we keep in contact for years to come, and I get to take part in more research next summer.”
Omoniyi was in good company at Johns Hopkins with recent Illinois State alumni who also work at the hospital, including Ashley Bautista ’22, a child life specialist, and Allie Beam ’22, a speech-language pathology clinical fellow.
