Week One

My first few days at Pervasis were spent getting to know the company and the people who work here. I got a tour of the lab and I met everyone who worked at the company (all of whom were very warm and welcoming). I had a bunch of light reading to do (safety manuals, lab procedures, scientific papers about the company's research, etc.), but it was all in order to train me for lab work and help me better understand what they do here at Pervasis.

I received a badge to get me into the building, a computer that I can use, and my very own lab notebook. They told me the importance of keeping a neat, clear notebook so that anyone would be able to read it and follow my steps. My computer is in a room shared by the two other interns at Pervasis. One is here from the summer from Norway, and both are in med school. I'm not going to lie, that was a little intimidating....

On my second day, Celina, one of the senior scientists in Research & Development, took me up to the lab. She taught me basic stuff, like lab safety and pipetting, as well as started training me on running assays, tests to find the amount of a substance in a sample. In this particular assay, we were testing for the amount of glycosaminoglycan (GAG) proteins, in particular heparan sulfate, created by the samples of endothelial cells. Celina was very helpful in helping me understand how to perform each step in the assay. Although she was running this assay as a real test of her samples to be used for the company's research, she had extra of the samples and also let me run the assay. After she completed each step, I did the same until the assay was finished. My first assay was successful and my results came out as expected, which I was very happy about.

On Wednesday, my third day at work, I was excited to find out that there was going to be a company lunch. All the employees at Pervasis sat together in the conference room and we ordered pizza. Everyone, including me, went around the table and introduced themselves. It was a great way to get to know everyone and for everyone else to get to know me. I could tell that because Pervasis is such a small company, the employees are close to one another and are friendly with everyone and I'm really excited to be apart of that.

Towards the end of the week, Celina had me running assays by myself to train me so that eventually, my results could be used by the company. I ran one assay by myself with just the controls and then another with samples. Both came out with good results so from now on, I can run assays and the company will be able to use my results in their research!

Pervasis Therapeutics

This summer I will be interning at a biotech company, called Pervasis Therapeutics, in Cambridge, MA. Located in Kendall Square, Pervasis is a small company, consisting of only eight full-time employees, some part-time consultants, and a few interns. Pervasis works to develop biologically active cell-based therapeutics to treat serious illnesses. The company has created technologies to repair blood vessels and restore blood flow around the body. Their product, Vascugel® (pictured at right), which is an allogenic (from the same species) cell therapy product, is designed to reestablish healthy vasculature in the body. This product was first developed to be surgically delivered to the damaged blood vessel. The second generation of Vascugel® is a non-invasive, injectable version. This new version is currently undergoing clinical trials in France. The product works when it is placed next to an injured blood vessel. Vascugel® endothelial cells (cells that line the inside of blood vessels) provide growth regulatory compounds to the blood vessel and promote a natural healing process. Vascugel® can be used to heal intimal hyperplasia (the thickening of the inner layer of the blood vessel as a result of injury), stenosis (narrowing of the blood vessel), and thromobosis (the formation of a blood clot) in the blood vessel where the the matrix is placed.

Human Aortic Endothelial Cells Cultures on Microcarriers

Vascugel®: Cell Tracker™ Staining