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Maya Sim - Week 1

On the very first day, I managed to find the lab by following a paragraph-long instruction sent through the email chain with my mentor, Nino. I was invited to participate in the weekly lab meeting where coincidentally, Nino was scheduled to give a presentation on his current major projects. I was introduced to everybody and the meeting began with the lab members and my PI, Dr. Tang, having casual conversation about their weekends. When Nino finally started his presentation after about thirty minutes, I was sitting quietly in the back of the conference room, surprised and proud of myself that I actually understood what he was talking about. His major project involved transplantation of encapsulation devices for islets as a treatment for type 1 diabetes. Over the next few weeks, I would be repeating his experiments to confirm the first set of data.

After the meeting, he gave a quick tour of the lab and took me to the animal center. I learned how to scrub in, from shoe covers, scrubs, gloves, hair nets and face masks. Then, I observed him as he anesthetized five mice and made a cut to reveal the subcutaneous space of the abdomen, where he placed the encapsulation devices. I then stapled the wound and put them back in their cages. This procedure is called pre-implantation since we only transplanted the devices without any cells inside. This is to give time for new blood vessels to form around the device to make sure the cells would be able to survive immediately from efficient nutrient and oxygen exchange. After two weeks, we will be injecting human stem cell derived beta cells through a catheter into the devices and heat seal the device closed.

As part of another ongoing project, I learned how to use a machine called In Vivo Imaging System (IVIS) to take images of anesthetized mice detecting bioluminescence. Depending on the number of islets that survived and produced insulin within the encapsulation devices, the images would show a difference in the amount of bioluminescence. If no islets survived, nothing would be detected. Our goal is to make sure the encapsulation devices provide enough protection against the immune system to ensure islet survival, which is critical for treatment of diabetes.

Overall, my first week involved a lot of learning how to use the machines and handling animals. Having had a busy week, I spent my weekend exploring the city of San Francisco and enjoyed a lot of great food here.
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