A letter written to my future self at the start of my Cell Biology course in Fall 2018.

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Dear future Sarah,

Biology has always been a major interest of yours. Being a pre-med student with high aspirations to one day become a surgeon, your love and curiosity for biology has always been more than enough motivation to probe into deeper subjects in search of answers. I know you find nearly all of the different fields in biology to be interesting, but the study of medicine and of the human body have always been particularly intriguing, for a variety of reasons. There are still many puzzles to figure out when it comes to the healthy functioning of the human body, and that is only part of the grand mystery that draws you in.

In this course on Cell Biology, I am hoping that you’ll learn many things about the finer details of cells and their functions. In particular, the topic of immunotherapy drugs, and how they affect cells on a molecular level to mount an immune response against cancer cells, is a very interesting subject to me. Immunotherapy is a relatively new treatment of cancer that oncologists have begun implementing as another option for certain types of people, under which certain conditions have been met. Most of these drugs are still experimental and are the source of research studies, and therefore might not have much information regarding their exact effects. I know already that some of these drugs help to treat cancer by activating T-cells and B-cells in the patient’s body, and by effectively “switching off” pathways for regulated cell death. However, I would like to learn more about the exact mechanisms, and to ultimately better understand this class of drug.

Since immunotherapy drugs affect cancer cells, and therefore affect normal, healthy cells as well, this course will hopefully be very enlightening when it comes to finding answers on this topic. In particular, gaining a better understanding of cell mechanisms, including apoptosis and the activating/deactivating of the immune response, will greatly help in understanding how immunotherapy drugs help cancer patients. This can one day help me to be a better physician, as I may be able to apply this knowledge elsewhere, and perhaps can improve at least one person’s life if I am more aware of these drugs and what effects they may have on the cells, whether they are healthy or cancerous, of the human body. I know, future Sarah, that you will feel more secure in your knowledge when you finally find the answers you seek.

Best of luck to you this semester!

Sincerely,

Sarah Oatess