In 2015, I conducted research alongside a friend on an original project which would later be titled A Novel Investigation of the Interactions between Caenorhabditis elegans and Mycobacterium smegmatis. This project really started in 2014, when he and I became obsessive over learning about tuberculosis. At some point, we came across a rejected research proposal related to finding natural treatments for tuberculosis. We decided we wanted to give it a try.

Given that we had no real lab and not much money, we created a makeshift experiment involving M. smegmatis (which has many similarities to tuberculosis in structure) and C. elegans. We eventually got some preliminary results, and wanted to explore further. After dozens of emails and calls to various professors and labs, we eventually were taken in by the Forsyth Institute's Immunology Department, where we received lab access and funding for any materials we needed. We were incredibly grateful.

This was a wonderfully enjoyable, lucky, and meaningful experience. To learn more about our research and the results, please refer to our research report here.