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Sample Reports
Cooperative Education - Final Report For the past six and a half months, I have been on co-op assignment at Forest Laboratories, a pharmaceutical company, on Long Island. Now that I have completed my work there with the Exploratory Pharmaceutics Department, I am glad I did a co-op and found it worthwhile. My assignments basically involved analytical chemistry. Probably the most common activity I would work on was dissolution testing for an upcoming drug product Forest hopes to put on the market. I would set up for the experiments, operate and program the equipment, prepare media, weigh drug substance, and start the tests. After completing a dissolution test, I would also help with sample analysis. I learned a little bit about Turbochrom, a program used for HPLC analysis, and how to operate an HPLC. This work ranged from preparing mobile phase for the HPLC to looking at peaks on chromatograms to see how the drug released. Another area of research I helped with was cell culture and transport studies. We would culture cell lines in vitro and use them to test permeability of an inhaled corticosteroid across their monolayers. Cell culture techniques required quite a bit of training from my mentor, but once trained; I was able to perform my own set of experiments. I compiled the data from my experiments and made a presentation to people in my department and the Formulations Department. Forest requires a presentation from all of their interns, and this was a great opportunity to show co-workers what I worked on and what I was able to accomplish over the past few months. The coursework I found most valuable for my job includes organic chemistry, organic chemistry lab, and CHEM 111. These classes taught me the basics about chemistry and analytical chemistry, which I used on a day-to-day basis at work. Although this coursework has been useful, the job experience taught me several things I would not be able to learn in class. For example, classes have talked about HPLC and cell culture, but that's it. With co-op, I was able to actually learn these skills and apply what was talked about in class. I think that the job was a great experience, but I do not think that it was suitable for biomedical engineers. There was little engineering involved because it was mostly pure chemistry. This leads me to believe that sometimes employers have misconceptions as to what a biomedical engineer does. A lot of the time, work became very monotonous and boring. The job became routine and often there was not much work for me to do. I also felt like an outsider the whole time, never getting to go to meetings or let in on discussion. I would do the work for my department only for an occasional "thanks" or pat on the back. It got frustrating to do lots of work and then miss the big picture. Also, I never really had any workspace to get my work done. I was basically a vagrant wandering from one vacant desk space or computer to another. Despite the negative aspects of my job experience, I feel that it was positive overall. I gained valuable job experience, learned many new skills, and got an inside look at the pharmaceutical industry. It also gave me time to learn how to survive on my own away from home and school. Living close to New York City was spectacular, and I'd recommend that to anyone. Additionally, I think I have had some time on co-op to think about what sort of career I want to pursue and how to put my degree to use. I have decided that I would like to go on to law school after graduation and eventually work for a respectable firm in intellectual property and patent law. My time at Forest Labs has enhanced my scientific background and has taught me many lessons I will be able to apply to my future. |
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