TBMH course gives graduate students hands-on laboratory learning

My idea when I was putting this course together is that it’s really an exciting time to be doing cancer research, and it's really been rapid progression of technology. This has allowed us to better understand genomics and how that contributes to both the formation of tumors, but it has also shed light on vulnerabilities in tumors so that we can develop new targeted therapies that we can use to change how we treat patients. So my goal for this course is I wanted to introduce these concepts to the next generation of scientists. The Translational Cancer Genomics class has been really impactful so far for me. Throughout the course, we're able to learn how to apply computational biology and how to interpret it as well. So it has been really helpful and insightful. So for me, actually learning about it is one thing, but then going into the lab and doing it is actually crucial to learning how to do it. Within the class, starting from day one, we are assigned a team and within the team we are given a fictional patient where they have AML diagnosis. We're able to follow this fictional patient, learn how to diagnose them, what kind of treatment they should be getting, and what should be the final outcome. So we're able to use the techniques and the knowledge from the class and apply to real-world situations. Some of our assignments have been, here is a cancer variant that you're given. Why is it important? Do you think it's pathogenic, right? I think that's very helpful, especially with teaching us how to use these tools. Being able to learn each technique, for instance, with the next generation sequencing, learning how to isolate the DNA, fragment the DNA, and at the end be able to learn how to sequence it. I don't think you'll be able to get that in any other courses that are offered anywhere else, so it's really awesome to get this opportunity within Virginia Tech. I've been enjoying the course a lot. At least for me to be a good scientist, we should have both experimental and computational skills. And this is one of the TBMH courses that teaches you a lot of the way computational data is analyzed. And so I would definitely recommend this. I wanted to use the unique aspects that we have here in D.C. and our knowledge and our capabilities to actually show the students and kind of go beyond just reading something in a textbook, thinking about things beyond just and experiment but as a real person because that's what we're doing here right, our ultimate goal of course is to learn, but also to help make lives of people with cancer better.