This week’s been all about data analysis, which is good but also nerve-wrecking, since we’re probably the closest to getting real results than ever for something this lab had been working for weeks (months?) on. I’m really glad I get to be a part of it :). Giulia introduced me and David to PRISM, which is basically this graphing program that helps you make all sorts of graphs and tables and charts and statistically related stuff. Fancy, but not fun. While I thought all I had to say about statistics was the chi-square test, regression lines and r2, and standard deviation (not really, but my list was too short), that actually covers a lot more of the foundation of statistical analysis than I thought. Thank you AP Bio. So, PRISM turned out to be a hit for me!!!! Other than that, Uber just introduced me to Ride Pass, which is supposed to save money on commutes, but since I’m only here for two more weeks, it’s not quite handy. I definitely could have saved a lot if I started out with it though, so if anyone’s beginning their lab now (probably unlikely), check it out.
We started off our week with a congratulatory acai bowl trip to celebrate Preston’s acceptance into a training grant program. Acai bowls in California top Playa Bowls (no question about it). From what I can tell, its a pretty huge honor to be recognized by this grant, but he’s really humble about it. On Monday, Preston and I decided that testing antibodies that have never been tested on prostate epithelial cells before would be a good objective for my first Western blot on my own. We needed to probe for ASCT2, a glutamine transporter, and GLS in order to determine if their corresponding antibodies are functional. Antibodies are crucial for Western blots because they bind to the protein of interest (POI), allowing for us to qualify its expression after imaging. As such, Preston wanted to make sure they worked by probing for ASCT2 and GLS on three different cell lines. Cell lines are commercially purchased human cells that have been immortalized (modified to grow indefinitely) by telome...
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