What is this activity?

The Stuyvesant Proteomics Team welcomes anybody interested in biology and willing to go beyond traditional memorization to develop research, design skills, public speaking, and collaboration skills. Proteins are everywhere, but have you ever wondered how they actually work? Here, we research the function of proteins and their influence on disease. In the process, we will 3D print protein models using the 3D printers from the Innovation Lab. Our findings will get presented at conferences and competition at the end of the year.

On what days does this activity meet?

Tuesday

What is the meeting schedule?

Our meetings will be held every other Tuesday. If for some reason we cannot have it on the Tuesday, the meeting will be held virtually on another night of the week, a day that everyone can make. When the presentation dates approach, meetings will be every Tuesday. This is to insure that all materials are ready and that the group has rehearsed the presentation so that we can be professional when presenting our findings. Meetings will typically last around 1 hour to and 1.5 hours. There would be no periods of pause for meetings unless there is a holiday, or break.

What does a typical meeting look like?

For our first meeting, all members will be introduced to each other and become part of the proteomics team. For the next two weeks, members will research possible proteins to focus on during the school year. At our second meeting we plan to share ideas, and help sharpen our proposals. The third meeting will consist of members voting on a protein for the club to work on for the year. Meetings afterward will consist of members discussing research and consolidating it in a professional presentation. A typical meeting would consist of students coming in around 3:40, where they would sit and talk with other members about their research. Each meeting would have a specific purpose. Say at this meeting the purpose was to work on the protein model after it had been printed. Around 3:50 we would have our pliers and model ready so that we can get rid of the supports and isolate the model. Then around 4:40 we would clean up our materials and head out.

How does this activity appoint leaders?

There will be two co-presidents for the club. That would be me, Hayley Geoghegan and Cathy Guan. We will be in charge of all club activities. This includes booking rooms for meetings, putting together trips, finding competitions and helping members research. We will also any inquiries about the club. Our emails are hgeoghegan70@stuy.edu and cguan70@stuy.edu, respectively.

What makes this activity unique?

Unlike other STEM clubs, Stuyvesant Proteomics is adaptive to each member’s interests and provides the opportunity to explore current research beyond a textbook. Though we always go through the basics of protein modeling and reading scientific literature, there is no set curriculum and the course the club takes is unique each year. For example, last year, our club members researched the effect of the RNF-213 R4810K mutation thought to have an effect of moyamoya disease, a neurodegenerative disease. We presented our research at the Annual NY Protein Model Symposium at Stony Brook! Additionally, the annual citywide symposium we participate in allows members to improve their public speaking and scientific communication skills; it provides a genuine outlet to share our work with like-minded students and collaborate with other schools.