Week 6

This week, like most of the previous weeks, started out normally, only to later spiral into chaos.

On Monday, I became the most efficient worker and my supervisor, Caitlin, and I were able to quickly finish four plates, which is the maximum that we can fulfill in one day. We were both really excited because we had just finished half of the work for that entire section of the brain samples that we needed to test. The next day, however, we quickly realized that things were not going as well as we thought.

On Tuesday, my main supervisor, Sarah, came in, saw our results, and very quickly deemed that all of our tests had been messed up, and that we had to redo them. It turned out that one of the antibodies that we were using had expired, but we had no way of knowing that because the antibody was made in the lab, so it doesn't come with an expiration date or anything. I was kind of bummed that we had to redo all of our plates, but what made me feel worse was the thought of all of the money that went down the drain from all of the wasted materials. The rest of the day, I worked on my study design, which is basically an outline for a paper that one wants to publish. I doubt that I will be publishing anything, but my supervisor wants me to practice as this will be a valuable skill in the future when I do other research.

On Wednesday, instead of running all of the plates again, we decided to change some our methods and rerun one plate, just to see if the changes would have much of an effect. The rest of that day was spent working on my study design as well.

On Thursday, we had our normal weekly meetings. This week, Matt, one of the lab researchers, presented his preliminary proposal for a project that he was about to start. The rest of the lab researchers gave him plenty of advice and tips, and that was basically all that happened during the meeting. Afterwards, I had to fish out some old samples in the -80 C freezer before I left  early to go on a hiking trip with my family.

Week 5

After a week off for spring break, I felt ready to get back to work on my project and maybe gather a lot of useful data for my project as well.

But this week was again not only unique but also a very informative experience.

On Monday, I finished the two Wes plates I needed to collect all the data for the S1BF region of the mice brain samples that I am using. For the plates themselves, I ran two plates testing for Glypican 4 in S1BF samples from animals whose brains were removed and frozen one to seven days post injury to complete that region.

During that day as well, I had a meeting with Dr. Theresa Thomas and my senior advisor, Sarah. There, we began with a discussion of the progress that we made so far with the project, but we digressed to the topic of the challenges facing students who pursue the medical profession and the characteristics that are needed to truly elevate yourself from the pack. All in all, the meeting was very informative and a unique learning experience, especially given that Dr. Thomas sits on the board of admissions for the University of Arizona Medical School.

On Tuesday, I started running Wes plates for the MPFC (mid pre frontal cortex) region of the mice brain. Specifically, I ran the preliminary plate that we use to determine which samples will run well with the others. After that, I gathered samples from the MPFC region that need to be used for future plates and put them into one box for safe storage in the freezer for easier access later on. I then called it a day after that.

On Wednesday, my senior advisor, Sarah, advised me to study the Compass software that I use to interpret the Wes results and to become more comfortable with using it. This may seem relaxing, but the 452 page long user’s manual that I had to read made it hard to take it easy. After a few hours tinkering with Compass, I aided our lab manager, Bret, in his study on cage dividers and their effect on mice aggression. I got to go the vivarium, where the living mice are, and though I did not get to touch them, I got to operate the rotarod machine that we were using that day to run tests on the mice.

On Thursday, we had yet another lab meeting. At this week’s lab meeting, we had an extensive discussion about the new batman v superman movie for about half an hour before we got down to business. Bret gave a presentation about his LPA study and asked for suggestions on how to improve it. Though I was of no help, the others gladly gave him advice on how to improve his study. After the meeting, I helped Sarah with some paper filing and general organization and then I helped Bret with his studies using the rotarod once again.

Week 4

This week at the Arizona Biomedical Collaborative was kind of hectic.

On Monday, I ran some more Wes plates with my secondary adviser Caitlin. I ran plates for the second half of the samples from the S1BF region of mice brain samples. My results indicated that the run was completed successfully as compared to the disastrous run of the same plate a few days ago. After I completed the Wes plates, I took a break for lunch and organized my notebook and my materials.

On Tuesday, things went perfectly for the first time since I came to the lab. That day, I had to run another wes plate with Sarah, and within a matter of minutes everything was set up, the rest of the process went as smoothly as it could, and we were done by lunchtime. After that, I worked on organizing the lab and Sarah's lab notebook, which was very messy and all over the place. Overall, it was a pretty relaxed day without much craziness.

Wednesday, on the other hand, was a complete disaster. I got to prepare a wes plate by myself for the first time, and I was really excited. However, I was making mistakes from the get-go till the end. Every step that I could mess up, I did. At the end of it all, the results looked like an ekg  that went wild. I would have looked at it as an opportunity to learn from all the possible mistakes that I could make, but considering how much the plate itself costs, plus the materials that were put into the plate and the time it took to the raise the mice before removing their brains, it was kind of hard to focus on anything but the cost.

On Thursday, at the weekly lab meeting, I learned again what not to do in lab studies along with learning some new facets of the medical industry. Overall, I had a very light work day, and after doing some organizing and setting a wes plate for my senior advisor, Sarah, to run, I called it a day.