My First Week in the World of Research
Hi Everyone!
My name is Shilpa Agrawal and I am a rising sophomore at Duke University. As part of the Howard Hughes Program this summer, I will be working in the lab of Doctor Marilyn Telen. The people in the lab study sickle cell disease. I am really excited because I have never worked in a wet lab before!
So in the first few days I was introduced to my project. Over the summer I had read several articles and one of them (from UNC) showed how sickle red blood cells not only stick to one another but also to monocytes and platelets to create aggregates. These aggregates contribute to the clumping of cells, which eventually can block blood vessels and impair blood flow. In addition, I was told that epinephrine often increases blood vessel blockage as sickle cell individuals have more of a change of blood vessel blockage when they are under stress. So for my project, I am looking at whether and how epinephrine affects these aggregates of sickle red blood cells, monoctyes, and platelets.
My mentor Mardee. who is absolutely amazing, explained to me some of the procedures I would need to use for my project. I learned many things from the basics of how to pipet properly to flow cytometry. One thing really cool about my project was that we started from the very beginning. I had to order the reagents that I would need! I had never thought that a lab wouldn’t have the necessary supplies. On my first day in the lab I saw so many chemicals and supplies that I never even considered having to one day purchase even more. But with the help of Mardee, we ordered some reagents we would need…why, by the way, was so much more difficult than I thought it would be! One antibody has like 20 variations and you have to go through each variation and pick the perfect one! Right now I am on the part where I have to test each antibody separately to make sure it works, which makes me realize that this one project is going to take a very long time! But that’s okay because I love it so far…especially not knowing what is going to happen next and getting to do so many experiments with fresh human blood (okay I sound like a vampire now).
The people in my lab are so friendly and nice. It is a relatively small lab but that makes it nice and cozy. My mentor Mardee answers all my questions so thoroughly that I know in my project exactly why I am doing each step and that feeling is really great because then you aren’t just following a protocol. She is also very patient when I do things like get blood on the Pipetman (which hopefully will start happening less so I don’t waste all of the lab’s ethanol). Susan is also super cool (expect for the fact that she’s from UNC and wears her UNC clothing sometime). Not only does everyone help me around the lab but they also are helping me adjust to living in an apartment for the first time and having to cook! Sometimes Mardee prints out recipes that are not that difficult to follow so that I actually have something for dinner.
Here are some pictures from my lab:
Susan! Who agreed not to wear her UNC attire for this picture :)
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Mardee!
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Me! Doing flow cytometry with sickle cell blood in the pipet.
Our fridge full of blood and antibodies and other things!
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