Intro to Lab: Week 1
Hi, people! My name is Stevan Budi, currently an undergrad student at Duke University. This summer I am working in a psychoneuroimmunology lab, Bilbo Lab, over at GSRB building. The overall goal of the lab is to look at how the immune system affects the brain, which in turns the body and vice versa. Right now, we are looking at how activation of the immune system early in life affects glial cells in the brain. This week, we extracted a couple of rat brains, dissected them in the cryostat, and experimented on the different staining methods for brains of the baby rats, trying to find the best method to stain them.
I am very excited about this experiment and just in general, this research experience. My mentor, Jackie, has been really helpful to me; she is very teaching-oriented (I am not sure if she has been a teacher before). I have learned so much from her in five days of time from handling the rats, making staining solution, dissecting a rat’s brain and much more. Overall, all of the people in the lab has been very great, I feel welcome in their lab.
I am sorry that there is no picture of the lab in this blog. My camera is not in my possession right now, I left it back home. Hopefully when my camera gets here, I will be able to include some pictures of the wonderful Bilbo Lab in my next blog.
Well, thanks for reading my blog and stay tune for the next blog. Bye!!
