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Sarah, Week 7-8

As I was wrapping up my time at the lab, Claire was also wrapping up some of her work to present to her thesis committee.  My seventh week was a continuation of probing western blots with different antibodies after extracting protein from the heart, lung, and brain of each of the mice which had been genotyped before.  This allowed for the comparison of heterozygous, homozygous, and wild type mice.  The results from the antibodies were unexpected, leading to some confusion.  Thus, we had to go back and redo the genotyping in order to confirm the original conclusions from the gel electrophoresis.  The genotyping was correct, but there were a variety of other factors which could have led to the unexpected results.
My 8th and final week was spent doing some lab work, but mostly reading some primary literature in order to prepare for my poster.  I took some notes and discussed what I read with Claire in order to gain confidence in my knowledge of the topic.  My second to last day, my lab got cake for myself and the other summer students.  It was really nice to be able to sit down with everyone before I left.  My last two weeks were bittersweet because on the one hand I was excited to be able to just stay at home, but on the other hand I was sad to be leaving the lab after having learned so much in such a fun environment.  I would love to do some more research in college and beyond, but I will have to wait and see where the future will take me.
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