THE FABULOUS 5
Hey! I'm Nancy, a rising senior at East Chapel Hill who is currently reading The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult and finishing watching season 7 of Gimore Girls, not to mention embarking on the sure to be wonderful journey that is Howard Hughes! If you do decide keep up with my blog you'll realize that I like random pictures, elipses (...), CAPS LOCK, and incomplete sentences. So...let's begin.
5 insights into Week 1:
1. I am doing really cool stuff this summer in the Wetsel lab... basically using pharmacological mouse models for schizophrenia-related testing. Schizophrenia...think John Nash. mathematician. A Beautiful Mind. It's really exciting for me because the work i get to do in the lab is unlike anything i would ever get to do in my highschool. I'm thinking that these 7 weeks will satisfy my fascination with the complexities of the brain and give me an ample dose of cute mice.
2. The machinery is crazy. Seriously, what would we do without computers? To perform a Pre-pulse Inhibition test you open a program, name the file, type in labels for each test subject, insert mice, click start, and then go move some boxes (my lab is finishing up moving to a brand new facility). I should probably try to explain PPI...iIt's a test that consists of measuring the response to a startle stimulus...which is a very loud (120 dB)...and extremely startling when you hear it the first time...sound. The idea is that normally, if you receive a quieter pre-pulse stimulus before the actual startle stimulus, you don't get startled as much. Schizophrenic indiciduals do not exhibit this phenomenon, thus PPI is a good test for studies on schizophrenia.
3. From the many research papers i have read this week (so many PDF files!) i've come to realize that science uses a lot of abbreviations: PPI, LI, AMP, DA, D2, VEH, GCR, PCP, NMDA, MFSTP...the list goes on. Speaking of reading scientific papers...thankyou Dr. Bob (my AP Biology teacher). It feels good to know what G-protein receptors are and how neurotransmitters work.
4. The people in my lab are so nice and intelligent. I swear, knowlege just flows out of Ramona Rodriguez, my mentor, when she talks about anything and everything. Caroline, who just graduated from Duke undergrad, is so sweet and really good company. And then there's the other busy individuals who just sort of pop up in the lab from time to time...it's a really great atmosphere to work in. Today, i heard singing coming from the autoclave. Picture time:
Ramona and Caroline having an intense discussion about PPI data.
5. Miscelaneous: I'm really getting to know Duke's Campus, which is a good thing...although, I suppose that would happen if you end up taking a different route everyday to the same place. I also thoroughly enjoyed getting to know everyone in the program. You guys are all so interesting and different and fun. I'm looking forward to what's in store next week. Every day is a new ADVENTURE.
there's always help available.
