Eppendorfs, blood, and heparin, oh my!
Hello fellow Pre-college program members, future pre-college applicants, and other people who happened to find this blog and have decided to take the time to read this! I'm Shalini, a rising senior at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. Things I can be found doing when I'm not blogging or doing research include playing my cello, playing basketball, reading, traveling, storytelling, and juggling. My academic interests include cellular and molecular biology, biochemistry, medicinal chemistry, physiology, proteins, and food science. Why so much science? I am passionate about science because of how dynamic it is! New breakthroughs and developments are made daily, not to mention new problems/diseases keep popping up. There is so much information out there that trying to overcome these obstacles and come up with solutions (pun intended) is such an adventure (and I love adventures)! However, the real reason behind my excitement about my research is the fact that my project will involve micropipetting on a daily basis (micropipetting is a favorite pasttime of mine).
Speaking of my research. . .it's bloody! Ok, not really, since I'll probably just be working with molecules in solution (hence all my solution puns) but it might end up bloody (should I move on to murine models). I'm in Dr. Gowthami Arepally's lab. She's an M.D. and hematologist at Duke, and the topic her lab focuses on is Heparin-Induced Thrombocytopenia (HIT). This disease is basically an autoimmune response to particle aggregates formed in the blood between heparin (when it is given as a drug) and platelet factor four (PF4). Goals of the lab include investigating the immune response of the disease using mice, and studying the antibodies to the PF4/heparin complexes in humans. I will not give away the adventurous nature of my project, because I don't want you to feel overwhelmed with excitement and intrigue just yet.
Pictures below: the bottom is of the left half of my lab, and that's the undergrad Julie on the right. Above that pic is the microfuge which is really cool and fun to use but probably will not be necessary in my research.
