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Srinidhi Baile, Finding My Place in the Lab

My second week in the lab has been great. On Tuesday, I talked with Dr. Bouchard, my PI, as well as as my two grad students and another student about our projects. I will be looking at AKT-GFP and how it affects mTORC, and therefore how it effects the replication of HBV. In order to do this, I need the new HepG2 cells (cancerous liver cells). While I wait for those to be cultured, I spend my time observing what other lab members are doing. At the end of the week, I observed Danyelle, one of the grad students I’m shadowing, do a western and native blot. A western blot detects denatured proteins, whereas a native keeps the proteins intact. At the end of the day Friday, we checked to see if we could detect proteins on both the membranes from the blots. The native worked but the western didn’t, so Danyelle had to redo the western over the weekend. Also during the week, I got to watch how cells are frozen down. This is useful because certain cells grow really fast, and it isn’t always necessary to be running experiments on all the cells you have.

One thing I really love about my lab is how laid back people are. Even my PI, who showed us a dry ice trick when I asked him how you should properly dispose of dry ice. Also, I always have lunch with somebody from my lab, which is nice because we don’t only talk about research all the time. Being 16 in a cafeteria where half the people there are dressed in scrubs and engraved lab coats can be intimidating, so it’s nice to have someone to talk to. There was one day in particular that really stuck with me. It was late in the day Wednesday, so it was just me and the two grad students I shadow, Andrea and Danyelle. Since Danyelle was running her gels, there was a lot of down time when all we had to do was wait for something to be done. While we waited, we made jokes and had some good laughs. Even though both of them are at least 10 years older than me, it was great to feel like I was a part of the lab.
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  1. UnknownJune 18, 2018 at 6:04 PM

    Sounds like you are making a smooth transition to the lab! Can't wait to hear more about your project tomorrow!

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