A typical week may look something like this:

On Mondays, I serve as the clinical research coordinator in clinic. I consent patients to the PETAL study and conduct health related quality of life surveys as a part of their participation in the Consortium. I help collect blood and saliva samples that help us with our research downstream. At the end of the day, I meet with Dr. Jain to go over the consented patients at their disease staging and off-site clinical charts so I can ensure thorough data entry.

On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I have meetings for PETAL and my personal project to discuss progress, data, hurdles and next steps, and I complete my bench work. Some days I extract circulating tumor DNA from the plasma that we isolate from patient’s blood samples, other days I sort apheresis specimens–blood components, like plasma or platelets, collected using a machine that separates them from the rest of the blood–collected from patients prior to autologous stem cell transplant into different immune cell types like T-, B-, natural killer and myeloid cells. After sorting them into distinct populations, I extract DNA from these cells for sequencing.

On Thursdays, I track the patients enrolled into PETAL and other research studies and organize blood collections across the nation. I first figure out where each patient is in their treatment journey, and if it is a timepoint of interest, I mark the patients down for a blood collection for research alongside their clinical blood work. I also screen patients that are scheduled for the following week to figure out if they are eligible for PETAL Consortium.

Fridays are my documentation day! I update the REDCap database with important clinical metrics for the patients assigned to me. I also ensure that our biobank and fixed tissue inventory is updated, and now, I have started catching up on writing and editing my first ever first-author paper.

The best part about this job is that each week looks different and keeps me on my toes!