DIY DIAGNOSTICS

Author: Reshan Warnesuriye

  • “From both a biochemical and engineering design perspective, DIY Diagnostics offers a wide variety of potential projects to choose from.”

    As a freshman, I honestly had no idea which stream I wanted to join after getting into FRI. Ironically, DIY Diagnostics was the first stream I researched and ended up being my first choice. I picked the DIY Diagnostics stream because I saw it as the stream with the largest potential to work on a project that would align with my interests. From both a biochemical and engineering design perspective, DIY Diagnostics offers a wide variety of potential projects to choose from. Additionally, the stream gives you a lot of freedom in pursuing your own projects, and the lab mentors and professor are extremely helpful in guiding you along the research process. Their guidance makes a big difference in being able to hit the ground running when it comes to research, and it was honestly this guidance that changed my opinion on research as a whole. It was through the help of others involved in FRI that research became something that was approachable. It went from a daunting and unachievable process to something with an end goal in sight. I came into FRI with the intention of getting my lab credits and leaving, but after working with everyone else here and making progress on my own project, I can see myself continuing research in one form or another for all my 4 years here at UT. FRI was one of the first sources of exposure to real research that I received, and it was the DIY stream that made it something I want to continue doing. 

  • “A New Perspective on Scientific Research”

    DIY Diagnostics: A New Perspective on Scientific Research

    Adjusting to college is tough. A new city, a new home, new classmates, and tougher classes can definitely be a shock. Attending a college like the University of Texas, where a large number of students are involved in research, it is easy to feel like you are falling behind if you are not working in a lab yourself. That being said, you have made an excellent choice by becoming a part of the Freshman Research Initiative!

    Before even coming to UT I had heard a lot about FRI, and I knew that I wanted to get involved in research. However, I knew that I wasn’t very interested in the traditional “wet lab” research that most CNS students seemed to get involved in. Rather, I had an interest in the broader, public health aspects of scientific research. For this reason, I committed to the DIY Diagnostics Lab.

    The beauty of DIY Diagnostics (or at least, what primarily appealed to me) was that the lab provided an excellent middle ground between wet lab research and what I saw myself doing. Our lab teaches students various wet lab techniques that can later be applied to design affordable, point of care diagnostic tools for various diseases, which have important impacts outside of the laboratory setting. Therefore, DIY Diagnostics offered me the best of both worlds – I have learned a lot about conducting wet lab research, and I am also in the process of applying what I learned at the lab bench to a broader public health setting.

    Though I do not see myself working in a wet lab in the future, DIY Diagnostics has been an amazing learning opportunity. It has exposed me to a side of lab research that I had not really experienced before. I have learned how to run PCR and LAMP reactions, how to 3D print, and how to code. Perhaps most importantly, however, this lab has taught me how to think creatively, how to properly conduct original research that contributes to the scientific community, and overall, how to be a better scientist.

     

  • “The amazing thing about this research stream is the flexibility and endless possibilities.”

    I joined the DIY Diagnostics stream of FRI in the spring of 2019 without many expectations for what I would undergo. I was intrigued by the idea of getting to work and develop with diagnostic technology, but I had little to no research experience prior to joining the stream. Throughout the first semester, I learned so much about different general laboratory and research skills as well as amazing diagnostic tools like lamp and PCR. I learned how to culture bacteria, extract DNA, and use fluorescence to quantify microorganisms. Some side advice for you, do not touch the Waller Creek water! My eyes were opened to the dedication and years of research that goes into making easy, inexpensive, and effective diagnostic tools. Beyond specific skills, I also learned what it meant to conduct real research. I was very uncomfortable and anxious with the idea of not getting the ‘right’ answer in the lab. Through my time in DIY, I learned that the process of research is long and tedious and can often lead to no answer, let alone the ‘correct’ answer. However, I started to appreciate the process of exploration and grew to enjoy research. I know that I would never have had the confidence to trust myself and simply research without expectations if I had not had the supportive environment created by Dr. Riedel, the mentors, and the other students in DIY.

    I am now in my second semester in DIY and have the opportunity to create my own diagnostic tool! I have decided to explore computer science and develop an application that can diagnose if a college student is sleep deprived. The amazing thing about this research stream is the flexibility and endless possibilities of research available to you. We are able to let our curiosities and ambitions drive our research which makes going into lab so much more enjoyable. I have no doubt that the skills I learned in lab and my mindset as a researcher will continue to help me in the future.

  • “The lab is a collaborative atmosphere that encourages the sharing of ideas and the collective improvement of everybody involved.”

    DIY Diagnostics ignited a spark in me that no other stream ever came close to fulfilling. As soon as I learned what the lab was all about, I knew it was something that I wanted to be a part of. I’m currently studying public health for my undergraduate degree and it was so exciting to find a stream that embodies everything that interests me. 

     

    This stream is special in that we learn so many techniques⁠ that can be applied to a number of fields of interest— wet lab, computer science, 3-D printing, and an integration of these disciplines. Because DIY Diagnostics does not put any constraints on our research, I get to move in a direction towards creating a diagnostic that can be impactful for developing countries. My philosophy is that if I, an undergrad with about one semester of research experience thus far, can create a diagnostic based on everything I have learned, it will turn out to be simple and affordable. In doing so, the end product will be something accessible to just about anybody. 

     

    I’m not going to lie, tears were shed. My first day of lab was mortifying. I felt like I was thrown into the deep end, and my mind went completely blank. But hey, that left my mind completely open. I got to truly absorb every experience throughout the semester and now I’m able to write about it. In fact, that was the very first lesson that I learned: write. everything. down. I vividly remember working with the pH meter, following the procedure to the best of my ability, and scribbling down the data on some scratch paper. My intention was to write it all down in my lab notebook in a much neater fashion, but that’s where I went wrong. I got scolded and then, of course, proceeded to cry. As it turns out, not only do you have to record everything that happens, but it has to all be in the right place. 

     

    This was just the start! Since then, being a part of this stream has changed my work ethic. There simply isn’t enough time to be a perfectionist for matters like this. I no longer worry about fine-tuning the way that my notebook looks or spending my time on other trivial things that can be done more simply and efficiently than I make them out to be. Of course, it is important to stay organized, but the content should speak for itself. Now, I invest all of that effort into actually performing conducting the investigations and running the experiments. This shift in prioritization has made a huge difference in my productivity and the quality of my data collection. Science is messy and mistakes are inevitable. I understood this coming into this stream, but I didn’t realize the gravity of it until actually taking part in the research. So much can go wrong, and I know that feeling all too well now. All I can do from there is accept the errors of my ways and use it to my advantage when I give it another try. 

     

    DIY Diagnostics changed how I viewed research as a whole. I know that the stream is called Do-It-Yourself, but it’s quite the contrary. The lab is a collaborative atmosphere that encourages the sharing of ideas and the collective improvement of everybody involved. I never had experience in research before, and of course I was eager to take on this opportunity, but I definitely wasn’t expecting this.