Week 2: A Day in the Life...The Power of a Flinch for Diabetic Neuropathy
There is no one“typical day” at the Calcutt pathology lab. Sure, the framework may be the same: I run experiments and I analyze the data that I gather from said experiments. However, research is a wonderfully creative process that requires a great deal of innovative thinking: How do I gather said data? What variations do I need to do to test my hypothesis? On a typical day I get into the lab at 9:30 AM (I really appreciate not having to get into work at 7) and set up my experiment for the day. Diabetes comes with many complications, one of which is diabetic neuropathy. It is well known that diabetes causes degeneration and regeneration of peripheral nerves, causing sensory loss. Unfortunately few treatments currently exist for diabetic neuropathy, with the leading treatment simply being blood glucose control. This is where my lab steps in, working on discovering potential treatments for diabetic neuropathy. My day comprises of behavioral tests on diabetic mice to determine the extent of nerve degeneration. The specific test I run takes about 3 hours because the test has to be repeated every thirty minutes (time trials!) to track increases or decreases in nerve sensitivity.
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7/24/2012 5 Comments Using Unusual Animals to Study Human Disease: A Summer Research Project in Veternarian Medicine - Week 2Week 2: A Day in the Life...by Natalie Punt
Research is Dynamic When I was a kid, I guess I was what you’d call a “dork.” I read books three grades above my expected level, made honor roll every year, and won many awards in reading and math. Not much has changed since then—except that I’ve realized a “dork” is really someone who pursues their intellectual passions. Pursuing my intellectual passions is exactly why I chose a career path in veterinarian research. Another positive aspect of this career path is that it gives me the opportunity to be surrounded by other “dorks.” Being on campus in the summer doing research, I am surrounded by like-minded people pursuing their interests and passions. During the summer, we can celebrate our unique attributes by parading openly through the library and lingering near the offices of distinguished professors in hopes of enticing them into conversation. Week 2: A Day in the Life...by Nzuekoh Nchinda
As I ride the shuttle bus each morning to the Longwood Medical Area, I become increasingly excited for what the day will have in store. Days at the Fortune Lab are far from boring, since each one brings a new learning experience, broadening my knowledge of both laboratory techniques as well as the vast scope of public health. On most days, I immediately start on my project. Conducting the necessary lab procedures takes a full 9:30am to 5:30pm day. But time always seems to fly by—despite repeating the same procedures daily, work never feels monotonous. What makes bench science so stimulating is that the potential result of your procedure is always unexpected. I may perform the same basic technique multiple times, but each time I make slight adjustments based upon the results of previous experiments. And the results of each procedure are different. So much of lab work is based upon trial and error. There have been days when all of my procedures failed to yield the results I needed. But then that moment comes when that desired result occurs. From that moment, I gain a deeper understanding of the bacterial mechanisms taking place in my project. It is that moment of discovery that keeps lab work exciting. Week 2: A Day in the Life...by Rabeea Ahmed
Every morning, when I enter the Space Science Institute (STScI) to begin my work for the day, breath-taking pictures of space that line the walls of the lobby greet me. Although I have walked through the lobby every day for over three weeks, the one-tenth-scale replica of the Hubble Space Telescope that hangs on the ceiling of the lobby always catches my attention. It infuses within me the thrill of being a part of an expedition that ventures into the haunting depths of space to learn more about our universe and our place in it. Most mornings at the STScI begin with a talk scheduled for student interns to learn more about the great work that takes place at the STScI. Dr. Alberto Conti, who is currently an Innovation Scientist for the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), delivered today’s talk, entitled “A New Kind of Astronomy”. As a computer science and astronomy student, the title of the talk piqued my interest. I was curious to know what new things were at the frontier of astrophysics today and what the future was like for the field. Indeed, the focus of the talk was 7/24/2012 0 Comments 18.085: My Summer at MIT - Week 2Week 2: A Day in the Life...by Amy Beth Prager
My typical day at MIT can be summed up in one word: MATLAB! MATLAB is an enormously powerful and popular software program that performs symbolic algebra and linear algebra. I spend the largest part of my day either running MATLAB (sometimes even successfully!), being lectured about MATLAB, or looking up MATLAB documentation on the web. One interesting application we learned was determining if a structure, such as a treehouse, is stable. Our professor said to always use MATLAB before sending our children up to a treehouse we build! It is really astounding how much computational power has expanded during my lifetime. When I was a little girl I begged my parents for a Timex Sinclair 2K computer with no screen- state of the art for 1980! I am constantly amazed by the advances made in technology and what modern technology is capable of! Despite how much technology changes, what is most important stays the same. Week 2: A Day in the Life...By Shaira Bhanji
The “Typical” Day: Senza Da Capo The melody of the day begins from the alarm of a small phone sleeping on a pillow dressed in sheets stamped with the seal of St. John’s Hospital. It’s 7:20AM, and my eyes roll open as the sound of rickshaw horns and the bark of dogs permeate the netted window to join in on the symphony. I throw off the bed sheets to feel the onset of itching and witness the redness that paints itself on my leg from the fresh kiss of a mosquito.…Welcome to India! I pick my shalwar for the day and slather on sunscreen, and then I hear another tune…the cheerful noise of a Skype call coming in from my family. Good morning or good evening—either greeting is appropriate given the 12.5-hour time difference between Bangalore and California. After sharing the latest occurrences and some virtual hugs, it’s time to fuel up for the day. If my suitemates and I aren’t eating oatmeal at home, you’ll find us at Sukh Sagar awaiting the arrival of two angelic rice cakes (called “idly”), which come to rest in front of me along with a hot cup of the finest masala chai I have ever tasted. 7/24/2012 0 Comments You Think What you Eat: Link between mental health, DNA and malnutrition - Week 2Week 2: A Day in the Life...by Riana Balahadia
Sites of Translation: Unraveling the Genes of Barbados It’s hard to define a “typical day” working for the Barbados Nutrition Study—and that isn’t a bad thing. This internship allows me to work in three different locations: Dr. Galler’s office in Brookline, Judge Baker’s Children Center in Mission Hill, and UMass Medical School in Worcester. Aside from the newly-increased MBTA fares, the change in scenery keeps things interesting and exciting. Even more importantly, working in multiple environments has made the connection between an evolutionary perspective and global health clearer to me. Dr. Galler’s office basement holds towers of data since the 1970s, from teacher assessments of post-malnourished children to the psychiatric clinical interviews of those same kids later as adults. My two co-workers and I are working on organizing this data and making sense of it for future papers. It’s actually quite enlightening sifting through this history; we’ve seen some interesting commentary on people potentially undiagnosed with some mental or heart disorder. Here, the connection between the papers I’ve read and the Barbadian people come alive. Collectively, those musty, yellowed pages reveal the lasting impact of child malnutrition. The truth is, this impact goes beyond the sad infomercials about starving boys and girls Week 2: A Day in the Life...By Pin-Wen Wang
A day in the lab starts around 9 a.m., but I tend to get in a little earlier. Something about being in Germany makes me wake up before my alarm and greet the sunlight coming through my windows with a smile. I love getting into the lab early because I get to watch others slowly trickle in and go about their morning coffee routine. My first job in the mornings is to refill our camera with nitrogen. Most of my lab time is spent working in what is called the “dark room,” where laser measurements are taken in complete darkness for more accurate data. The apparatus in this room shines a laser at different intensities onto my nanoparticles with the goal of capturing the emission of light given off by their electrons. The camera attached to this apparatus allows us to see the nanoparticles; the problem is, these nanoparticles are really small, and if the camera isn’t sharp enough, we can’t see anything. That’s why we use liquid nitrogen to cool down the camera and minimize vibrations or noise that would blur our images. I don’t know if you’ve ever played with liquid nitrogen, but it’s a lot of fun-- liquid nitrogen evaporates quickly at room temperature, freezing everything around it, andI love to watch the air condense into white clouds as I guide the nitrogen into the canister. Week 2: A Day in the Life...by Stephanie Wang
The best thing about research is that each day is your own, each slightly different, full of potential and possibility. I have a monthly calendar, just sheets of paper I printed out from the Internet, and it gives me great pleasure to plan ahead, projecting new experiments and reanalyzing my main goals and the many steps needed to reach them. These tentative plans change with the accumulation of new data, and that, too, is exciting. I groan when I hear my alarm clock turn on, the yellow numbers shifting slightly as I blink awake: 7:30AM. The fan is humming beside me, and though Winthrop House (a dorm at Harvard) has no A/C, the feel of the moving wind and the coolness of the early morning is pleasant. It is a struggle to get out of bed. I stumble out anyways, change, brush my teeth, and by 7:55AM, I am rushing out the door.
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The Lab JournalWelcome to the summer internship series of 2012! Follow 9 Scientista bloggers through their summer internships to catch a glimpse of what it is like to be a scientista^TM. By Title- India Presents: A "New World Symphony"
- Through The Lens: The Intricacies Of Diabetes - Do Nanoparticles Glow? - Using Unusual Animals to Study Human Disease - Using the Hubble Telescope - You Think What You Eat - Experimenting With the Life of a Scientist(a) - 18.085: My Summer at MIT - Science Heals: A Summer of Global Health Research By BloggerRabeea Ahmed
Riana Balahadia Shaira Bhanji Nzuekoh Nchinda Amy Beth Prager Natalie Punt Juliet Snyder Pin-Wen Wang Stephanie Wang Archives |
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The Scientista Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) -- Donate!