Peddie EXP Summer 2018

Today is my last day in the lab. This experience has been one-of-a-kind. On Tuesday, I took pictures of my transfected cells so I could count them and determine if there was a difference between my conditions. I will spend the rest of the day looking at the pictures of my cells, and this is the data I will present when school starts again. I am really going to miss being here everyday. This summer, there were a lot of interns, including two girls from France, so there was always someone to talk to (and I wasn’t the only confused person in the room). I became really close with the grad student I was following around, and am determined to keep in touch with her. I want to thank the Bouchard Lab for all they have taught me. Ala Viva!

The past few weeks in the lab were really fun. About 2 weeks ago, the lab welcomed 3 more summer students, which was nice because I wasn’t the newest one around anymore. It was cool to both be learning from my grad students and to be teaching the new student things, even if they were small. I started to truly enjoy coming to work everyday, not only because of the science, but because my lab became a little community and I was a part of it. Lab members weren’t just lab members— they were friends now too. I am really going to miss being here. One issue I faced was not knowing when I would start my project. As time went on, my project kept changing so that it would be something I could complete in my remaining time. I am currently working on determining if there is a difference in the localization of AKT (a protein kinase that has many functions in the cell) if the presence of HBV. To do this, I will be transfecting cells under different conditions, and then counting cells to see whe...

During my third week in the lab, I got the chance to do some work instead of just learning techniques. On Monday, I got to make the media for the HepG2 cells myself. This is media contains all the things the cells need in order to grow and proliferate for a few days. On Tuesday, both the grad students I follow were out sick. However, this was a problem because Danyelle, one of the students, needed to be in the lab to finish her western blot. This left Dara, a masters student, and I to finish it for her. Although it wasn’t a lot of work, Danyelle believed we were capable enough to finish her work for her. Later in the week, I started to do more and more things by myself. I got to run my own western blot (just with old samples), and I was excited to see that it worked (mostly). I also got to do a transfection with two plasmids, which also worked well. I’ve learned so much in my 3 weeks here, and I can’t wait for 3 more. Western Blot GFP transfection after 3 days

My second week in the lab has been great. On Tuesday, I talked with Dr. Bouchard, my PI, as well as as my two grad students and another student about our projects. I will be looking at AKT-GFP and how it affects mTORC, and therefore how it effects the replication of HBV. In order to do this, I need the new HepG2 cells (cancerous liver cells). While I wait for those to be cultured, I spend my time observing what other lab members are doing. At the end of the week, I observed Danyelle, one of the grad students I’m shadowing, do a western and native blot. A western blot detects denatured proteins, whereas a native keeps the proteins intact. At the end of the day Friday, we checked to see if we could detect proteins on both the membranes from the blots. The native worked but the western didn’t, so Danyelle had to redo the western over the weekend. Also during the week, I got to watch how cells are frozen down. This is useful because certain cells grow really fast, and it isn’t always nece...

My first few days in the lab were really great. Since I didn’t move into my apartment until June 1, I commuted the first few days. In the morning, my dad would drop me off at my lab, and after work I would come home on a train. I enjoyed commuting for those few days from Philadelphia to Princeton because it forced me to take charge. On my first day, the first thing I did was watch two of the graduate students remove the liver from a rat. This is because they needed primary hepatocytes (type of liver cell) in order to study HBV, which lives in liver cells. Throughout the rest of the week, I spent my time watching what the other graduate students were doing and learning more about their projects. I also observed many processes that I would also need to learn how to do, like splitting cells, collagen-coating plates, and also got to do a small transfection lab with Andrea, one of the two grad students I’m working with. I look forward to learning more from them and starting my own proj...