Being back at the lab was a great feeling. Both Thursday and Friday I attended lectures with the undergraduates in the lab, and went to a Q&A with Dr. Siegel (PI), where anyone in the lab could ask him any questions they may have. Dr. Siegel is extremely committed to exposing high school students and under graduates to a lab setting, and has planned so many events to help us acclimate to the lab environment.
Thursday I shadowed an undergraduate named Becky for the day, and I helped her weigh. feed. and monitor her special cohort of mice. She is working on a joint project with Merck in studying Fragile X (a condition marked by abnormalities in the X chromosome). Her mice are on a special feeding schedule where they can only get fed 2g of food per day, and she must take their weight twice a day to make sure they are not losing too much. The goal is for the mice to lose 15% of their body weight over this 4 week testing period as they are put through EEG and fear-conditioning testing. Attached below is a picture of one of the cages where Becky's mouses live. As you can see, they are marked as having special dietary requirements as mentioned beforehand.
Friday I got to practice my handling of the mice, as I restrained them and injected saline into them. My official mice training is not until June 26th, so until then I can not be alone with the mice or start an individual project. By next blog however, I should have been assigned my project since I will have completed my training and will be allowed to handle the mice alone.
I'm really enjoying my time at the lab so far, and can not wait to see what the rest of the summer entails!
Emma,
ReplyDeleteI am glad your sister is OK! Can you please title your posts with your name and entry #, that way folks can just read your blog if they want to because it will be easy to find.
Hope to see you Tuesday for lunch!