Seattle Children's Research Institute

Rabbitts Lab

June 2022-Present

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After working in a basic sciences research lab at Fred Hutch for over a year, I knew that I wanted to try something different. While I'm grateful for my time there introducing me to the research process and learning many technical skills, I wanted to explore a new field: clinical research.

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This opportunity came when I applied to the Scan Design Foundation Innovations in Pain Research Summer Program. To my surprise, I have worked with Jennifer Rabbitts, and collaborating labs, ever since.

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My clinical research afforded me many opportunities. The two main projects I am a part of is first, an update to a systematic review published in 2017, which looks at prevalence and risk factors to chronic postsurgical pain (CPSP) pain. Eventually, the prevalence paper will hopefully be finished by the end of the summer. The risk factors paper is a lengthier process, but will eventually be used to develop a screening measure to determine how at-risk a child might be for chronic pain 3-12+ months after surgery. This experience taught me new research skills, especially as it pertains to data extraction and the manuscript drafting process. I am incredibly grateful for the team, which is cross-institutional: we have worked with postdocs from prestigious institutions in Canada.

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The other project I'm participating in is a qualitative study evaluation teen attitudes towards opioids and pain management. This project should be submitted by the first week of June 2023.

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In addition to research, as my PI is a MD/PhD, she works as an anesthesiologist at Seattle Children's Hospital. I have had the opportunity to shadow her, as well as other anesthesiologists and surgeons in the OR. There are two pictures below. To the left, is my medical illustration for a case report I drew, published in the American Surgeon, which I wrote (with other authors) at Emory University Hospital. I decided to add onto this habit with taking notes and drawing in my journal in the OR (combining my love for art and science!) with drawings I did at Seattle Children's, including the one to the right.

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My research experience with the Rabbitts lab has been incredibly enriching, and I have been afforded the opportunity to follow her to Stanford to continue the work at Lucille Packard and the Center for Clinical Research there. I will stay there 1-2 years during my gap year before medical school. I'll keep y'all updated!

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*Funnily enough, I had no idea that they featured my poster as an example for Better Poster Design on the UW Undergraduate Research Posters Repository. I found it via two of my friends who said that they found it in class when their professor recommended a website for examples on research posters.

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