Emma, Blog entry #1, Week 1 at the lab!!!

My first week at Dr. Siegel's lab has been quite exciting.

On Tuesday I came to the lab and met with Dr. Siegel (the PI of the lab), who introduced me to Yuling Liang, a post-doc who would be my direct supervisor for the duration of my time here. I also met the 10 undergrads working in the lab this summer under the C-Sure Program, a summer undergraduate internship program. Although I am not technically part of the program, I get to go to all the seminars and presentations that are on their schedule, thanks to Dr. Siegel.

In the lab so far I have been working on online modules that train me for handling mice, and once I complete that I will be able to start working directly with the mice. Even though I can't yet start my specific project and work directly with the mice, I have been able to watch the undergrads conduct there experiments, and they have allowed me to help prepare materials and answer questions I during the procedures.

On my first day at the lab, I got to watch a surgery on one of the mice, where Chris (an undergrad), implanted an electrode into the amygdala of the mice's brain. The picture below shows the surgery set up, the blue pad being where the anesthetized mouse would be during surgery.

To anesthetize the mice, they are put in a box filled with isoflurane, until they are fully asleep. Once they are asleep they are put on the "operating table", or the blue pad shown above, and connected to a tube of isoflurane to keep them under. Being able to watch a mouse surgery my very first day in the lab was one of the coolest things I've ever experienced, and the level of precision and talent the post-docs show when performing surgery on an animal whose brain is smaller than an almond is incredible. Unfortunately, I am not allowed to perform surgeries this summer due to the fact that I am under 18 years old, but Dr. Siegel said if I come back to work next summer he would show me how to perform surgeries. 

Thursday and Friday I shadowed some of the other undergraduate students in the lab and I got to watch them run water mazes, T mazes, open field tests, and even more brain surgeries. I will get my personal project in the next few days, but until then, I am thoroughly enjoying being able to shadow the undergraduates in their experiments and get to know them all.