Week Two . . . Cells, Cells, Cells

My second week in Cambridge flew by. Finally, I was able to get more involved and even work on a few different experiments. On Monday, Sarah and I created a polymer that will be used to make a hydrogel next week. My role was to constantly monitor the pH level of the mixture, maintaining it as close to 6.8 as possible. I measured the pH after we added in each substance and used NaOH to raise it back to 6.8 if it dropped. After it was stable, we left the mixture stirring for a few days.

Monday afternoon, I went with Sarah across MIT’s campus to work with TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy). MIT has four of these huge microscopes, which Sarah used to take pictures of the microscopic channels in three different particles that we’re going to work with early next week.

Tuesday was a busy day for me in the lab. In the morning, I learned how to do an MTT assay, which is a laboratory test that uses color to measure cell growth. Basically, we culture cells, transfer them to well plates, add medium, change the medium every three days, add the materials we’re testing and then stain them with a dye to see if the cells are still alive. It’s a simple process, but time consuming. After observing, I was able to change the medium for a few samples and even fill the well plates. By the end of next week, I should be able to perform nearly the entire assay on my own.

In the afternoon, I went with Iris, another researcher, to observe her work with animals. She practiced making nerve blocks on the cystic nerves of rats. The process involved injecting lab rats with a mixture that would “block” the nerve, or make it temporarily non-functioning. Then she went through a series of tests to determine if the nerve was actually blocked. After being layered in a coat, hair cover, mask, gloves, and shoe covers, I wrote down the results of the tests for her. It was interesting to see her work with the rats because I’m learning that animal work is an inevitable part of biological research.

I had the day off on Wednesday for the holiday, so I spent the day at home with my family.
Thursday I spent most of the morning reading about different assays that we will do during the next six weeks. In the afternoon, I learned how to count cells, a somewhat tedious process, and how to determine if there were enough cells in a culture to perform an experiment.

On Friday we put our polymer into dialysis bags and suspended the bags in water. It was my responsibility to change the water every four hours. Next week, we should be able to freeze the mixture in liquid nitrogen and vacuum the water out, so we can start making the gel. I also changed the medium for C2C12 (muscle) cells, which involved vacuuming up the medium and pipetting fresh medium into 96 well plates.

So after a busy week, I’m heading home for the weekend, to spend some time with my family. On Sunday evening, I’ll be back for a dormwide cookout and a meeting with the tutor for my HIV/AIDS class. Have a great week!