Local Kerman High School student, Paul Toste will start his senior year ready to pursue his dream of becoming a physician after spending the summer at the University of California San Francisco, Fresno as a research intern in the prestigious Summer Biomedical Research Internship Program. The Summer Biomedical program selects Valley students based on academic merit, student questionnaires, SAT exam scores, and letters of recommendation. Only 12 students were admitted into the rigorous 10-week program.
Each student is matched with a faculty member from UCSF-Fresno. Together, the student and faculty work daily on a given research project. Paul Toste’s internship was with Alice Wright, Ph.D., on “Mating Protocols to Study Cross-Regulation.” Paul Toste presented the results of his study in UCSF-Fresno’s auditorium recently to an audience of the student's families, faculty members and respective school representatives.
Over the 10-week UCSF-Fresno program, the interns were exposed to a variety of scientific issues. They shadowed emergency medicine doctors at University Medical Center, went into surgery, and visited the coroner’s office. Highlights included trips to UCSF’s main campus in San Francisco where interns toured labs studying embryonic development and protein folding, and Lawrence Livermore Laboratory where they participated in a hands-on human genome related science experiment.
When the twelve UCSF-Fresno Summer Biomedical research interns go back to school, they will return to their favorite subjects ranging from chemistry, biology, statistics and physics to art, English and history. However, all are unanimous in saying that they study science because, “It’s cool.”