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Jane Richardson, Trying New Things

These two weeks, I decided to keep myself open to new opportunities so I could get the most out of your lab experience. Though I have been working primarily with SERT in staining slides, I got to try several new things this week that I am really excited about. First of all, I began working with another protein (tryptophan hydroxylase) that produce 5-HTT in an attempt to explain the high levels of serotonin in Giardiasis and IBS. One interesting thing that came from this slide production was that though SERT levels are higher on the outside of the intestine, trp levels are found to be higher on the inside of the intestine. This was very surprising to me because I assumed the reverse would be true. As for my continued work with SERT, levels in the distal colon still seem to remain higher than any part of the small intestine. This was an unexpected result that we first thought was a fluke, but now is presenting itself more and more. We will continue to look into that as we keep analyzing the slides.

Another interesting thing we did this week was making media for the Giardia parasites we are growing. Media is a substance that the Giardia is grown in so it can flourish and be used for research purposes. You add a wide array of things to the media, some I expected and some I did not. For example, you have to add a wide array of antioxidants because Giardia grows best when it is not in the presence of oxygen. I had not read this before in any of my research and was really surprised by what I learned. This also meant you had to be extremely careful when handling the media to avoid the formation of bubbles. It was really cool to make media and work with the parasite.

Lastly, I was able to observe a bone marrow extraction from a mouse in the animal facility. This was really interesting. We made media specifically for immune cells and use a syringe to flush the bones. When we had removed the bone marrow, I got to do the cell cultures. From this bone marrow, we are able to research the naive immune cells inside them. These immune cells are extremely important to some of the research projects in the lab. I was really excited to be a part of this crucial research.

Overall, these two weeks have been great! I got to try a lot of new things in the lab that I never imagined I would be able to do! As for outside of work, I have been having a great time in D.C. Even though I live in Arlington, there are still so many things I have never seen before and I love being able to explore them. For example, I was able to go to the portrait gallery and see the massive portraits of the Obamas, which was incredible! I also went to a park near Reagan National with some of my friends and watched the planes fly right over our heads!
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