Week 7 has certainly been a whirlwind. For our experiment, we essentially wanted to compare the DNA damage in the muscle stem cells (MuSCs) of injured mice with those of non-injured mice. However, our experiment which tested for DNA damage using the biomarker 53BP1 didn't quite work out. When my postdoc Elisia imaged the MuSCs in the microscope room, she looked at the DAPI (nuclei) staining and the 53BP1 staining to see if they overlapped; an overlap of the two stains would indicate DNA damage. While the DAPI staining successfully indicated the nuclei of the MuSCs, the biomarker 53BP1 had stained both the cells and their background. 53BP1 therefore proved to be ineffective at indicating the DNA damage we were looking for. Subsequently, Elisia decided to perform this experiment using a different biomarker, one that would reliably indicate DNA damage. I then spent the first half of Week 7 repeating this experiment using the biomarker Gamma-H2AX, which stains for double-strand breaks in DNA, instead of 53BP1. However, the results were inconclusive since the injured MuSCs showed no particular DNA damage. Elisia suspects that the experiment itself is limited in its effectiveness. It's hard, in general, to quantify DNA damage effectively since DNA can repair strand breaks as quickly as an hour. In the future, Elisia hopes to find a more effective way to measure the DNA damage present.
Elisia also taught me how to dissect a mouse and cut out its leg muscles last week. The process was complicated and required a lot of precision, but I guess she finally trusted me to do it after 7 weeks. This week, both Elisia and Delia, an undergraduate student, left to go home for vacation. It feels surreal that time has passed this quickly. Only our PI Dr. Mourkioti (or Faye, as I now call her), lab technician David, undergraduate student Jake, and I are present in the lab. Now that our experiment has concluded, I've been finishing my final analyses and working on my poster with the help of Faye. I'm fortunate to have such an instructive and patient PI. I would recommend future EXP students to stay a full eight weeks, if not more, in lab because eight weeks turned out to be the perfect time frame for me.
I've learned so much not only biology-wise, but also in terms of lessons that I'll take with me through the rest of my life. For instance, I recall a day in the lab where I had to count cells on an imaging software for almost 6 hours straight to quantify the proliferation of MuSCs. To count the MuSCs, I would pull up images of MuSC slides and click the screen anytime I saw a cell. Some of the images contained more than 1,000 cells! It was admittedly tedious and my eyes hurt from constantly staring at the screen, but my labmates joked about it and made it fun for me. I learned that whenever you aim to achieve a goal, you're going to have to do things you don't want to do. In these situations, it's so important to remember why you're doing it and what purpose it serves. In my case, counting the cells will serve as valuable data for the quantification of MuSC proliferation, which will help us to further our knowledge of the debilitating disease muscular dystrophy.
Overall, I'm so grateful for this experience. Since some of my friends in public high school had to fight tooth and nail to get the same research opportunities, I'm so privileged to do EXP as a Peddie student. As for my lab mates, I wish Delia and Jake the best of luck in their future research and in their upcoming junior years at UPenn; I know both of them can find happiness and will go far in whatever they choose to pursue. To David, thank you for being a incredible mentor and staying patient with me, even when I made mistakes; I hope he will enjoy his time in graduate school and in a new lab. Finally, I know Elisia and Faye will continue making progress in their research; I'm truly privileged to have met people as brilliant as you. Finally, to Dr. Peretz, Mr. Sham, and Ms. Cozine, thank you for dedicating your time to us EXP students, and patiently answering my questions. My EXPerience was so incredible thanks to your help, and I can't thank you enough.
Elisia also taught me how to dissect a mouse and cut out its leg muscles last week. The process was complicated and required a lot of precision, but I guess she finally trusted me to do it after 7 weeks. This week, both Elisia and Delia, an undergraduate student, left to go home for vacation. It feels surreal that time has passed this quickly. Only our PI Dr. Mourkioti (or Faye, as I now call her), lab technician David, undergraduate student Jake, and I are present in the lab. Now that our experiment has concluded, I've been finishing my final analyses and working on my poster with the help of Faye. I'm fortunate to have such an instructive and patient PI. I would recommend future EXP students to stay a full eight weeks, if not more, in lab because eight weeks turned out to be the perfect time frame for me.
I've learned so much not only biology-wise, but also in terms of lessons that I'll take with me through the rest of my life. For instance, I recall a day in the lab where I had to count cells on an imaging software for almost 6 hours straight to quantify the proliferation of MuSCs. To count the MuSCs, I would pull up images of MuSC slides and click the screen anytime I saw a cell. Some of the images contained more than 1,000 cells! It was admittedly tedious and my eyes hurt from constantly staring at the screen, but my labmates joked about it and made it fun for me. I learned that whenever you aim to achieve a goal, you're going to have to do things you don't want to do. In these situations, it's so important to remember why you're doing it and what purpose it serves. In my case, counting the cells will serve as valuable data for the quantification of MuSC proliferation, which will help us to further our knowledge of the debilitating disease muscular dystrophy.
Overall, I'm so grateful for this experience. Since some of my friends in public high school had to fight tooth and nail to get the same research opportunities, I'm so privileged to do EXP as a Peddie student. As for my lab mates, I wish Delia and Jake the best of luck in their future research and in their upcoming junior years at UPenn; I know both of them can find happiness and will go far in whatever they choose to pursue. To David, thank you for being a incredible mentor and staying patient with me, even when I made mistakes; I hope he will enjoy his time in graduate school and in a new lab. Finally, I know Elisia and Faye will continue making progress in their research; I'm truly privileged to have met people as brilliant as you. Finally, to Dr. Peretz, Mr. Sham, and Ms. Cozine, thank you for dedicating your time to us EXP students, and patiently answering my questions. My EXPerience was so incredible thanks to your help, and I can't thank you enough.
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