"Enlightening. Insightful. Transformative": Dan Zhang’s summer experience in the Drabovich Lab
28 September 2026
This 3rd year Physiology major's summer research was 'Enlightening', 'Insightful' and 'Transformative'.
Introduce yourself! What’s your name, program year and what did you do this summer?
My name is Dan Zhang and I’m going into my 3rd year as a BSc Major in Physiology. I spent the summer in Dr. Andrei Drabovich’s lab sequencing antibodies using mass spectrometry.
What research were you doing with the team at the Drabovich Lab?
Antibodies are part of the immune response and are a class of therapeutics. Traditional sequencing has slow throughput, [and] often requires prior sequence information, and is limited in sequencing the diverse classes of antibodies. Mass spectroscopy offers an alternative, but requires further optimization to ensure high-confidence sequence information. My summer research focused on optimizing these sequences and developing a workflow for sequencing antibodies.
What led you to this studentship?
Originally I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do in university. Taking classes and labs got him curious into the research and curious into the research and academic side of things especially after taking a research course in biochemistry. I saw Dr. Drabovich’s post on antibodies and mass spectrometry, and found the topic to be interesting and a great opportunity to expand his view on science and gain more experience in the field.
What would you say were your biggest lessons from this experience?
I learned a lot and believe I grew overall. My biggest lesson was developing a problem-solving perspective. Research is summarily just problem-solving, and having that perspective helps in making research efficient. By watching how fellow students and my PI in the lab approached problems regarding research, diagnosed errors and came up with approaches to these problems, I gained experience in how professionals in these fields directly approach problems in research.
This lesson helped me outside of the lab as I developed other professional skills like facilitating meetings, creating and presenting research posters and presenting/discussing research results.
What advice would you give students like you who want to try something like this?
Don’t be afraid to try something new. Research can be daunting and contacting professors can seem scary but don’t be afraid. Explore what projects are out there, contact PIs and see how you can be involved in the process. Even if you already know what you want to focus on, a lot of scientific disciplines come together. Just because a lab is focused on physiology doesn’t mean it won’t incorporate cell biology stuff. So try something new.
What are you looking forward to most for this new school year?
Each year is a new journey. In first year you’re trying to figure it out and in second year, you’ve figured it out but you’re learning to find your way. For my third year, I’m looking forward to being more involved in the campus community and attending more social events, programs and whatever the university has to offer!
I also hope to build on my summer experience and learn more about science.
In partnership with the Alberta Innovates Summer Studentships Program, SPP-ARC supports three undergraduate students each year to complete research projects in SPP-ARC member laboratories.