My name is Linzi Hosohama.
I am here at UCLA in Amander Clark's lab.
I am the Lab Technician/Lab Manager, currently, and I have some germ line projects where I
differentiate embryonic stem cell into primordial germ cells in an in vitro model.
And I'm now testing chemicals that the EPA has said they would like to look at to see
how it effects the formation of our, you know, precursor cells that will eventually become
our sperm and eggs.
So in the lab, I differentiate, so I, you know, make embryonic stem cells become this
primordial germ cell.
It's in vitro systems, so everything is out of the body.
It's actually in a hood.
We work in hoods which provide a very sterile environment.
And, basically, from there I culture these cells until they become the cell interest
of choice.
And then I take them and I analyze them for certain epigenetic marks.
And, basically, what I'm finding is I'm adding some chemicals to my cells and I'm trying
to see whether they can survive without this mark.
And so far we've found that they can't.
I think so little is know about this reproductive field right now and, you know, so many things
can right, so many things can go wrong.
And yet, you know, you either make a baby or don't make a baby and, to me, that was
something special within the division of science I felt was very intriguing.
And after I kind of expressed that interest to my family, a couple of them actually came
out and told me, you know, they've gone through IVF.
They've tried different things to have a baby.
Some of them were successful.
One of them has been trying for probably four or five years now, and she's still trying.
And there's still so much to be learned, which is really why I'm interested.
I wanted to join a field where it was very small, but it also interests me for personal
reasons, and I can contribute to it in some significant way.
What I'm specifically looking at within our germ cells is the epigenome.
So some cancers or some other things, things that are going wrong in the body, are not
just caused by genetic defects.
They're also being caused by epigenetic defects, which are just basically marks on your DNA
that tell it when to, you know, go or stop, basically.
It's become very interesting to me because I've, you know, been watching a lot of documentaries
about the chemicals that we're exposed to now in the environment.
I mean, we're exposed to upwards 10 to 10,000 chemicals a day.
They're in everything.
It's made me stop wanting to ask for receipts because receipts have a lot of BPA on it,
and that's one of the chemicals that I study.
You know I've been interested in infertility for a very long time and so now I'm, with
my other interests and understanding the chemicals in our environment and combining the two and
really understanding, how does is effect our reproductive ability cuz in my eyes thats',
you know, our number one goal and purpose of being on this Earth.
I am a scientist because I love science.
I think that DNA and everything, you know, the RNA, the protein it made and how it directs
the cell, and the cells interact with each other and then all of a sudden we've become
an organism.
I'm the walking, moving organism.
And there is plant organisms that grow around me, there's animals and we're all fundamentally
made of the same four basis, but yet we're all so different and diverse.
And, to me, that's amazing.
And so I feel, you know, I'm very young and I kind of know where I want to go with my
career but I'm still very open-minded because science is so vast and huge and diverse.
And I love talking to people about it.
There are so many different topics that are at your disposal to learn about.
And, you know, whatever peaks your interest you can then decide, you know, I maybe want
to find a lab that studies that so I can learn more about it.
I'm hoping that within my lifetime things change.
And I want to be, you know, one of the people that helps instill that change.