Only Two More Weeks Left! But I Feel Like I Just Started!
Wow…I think I recalculated 240 in my head at least 5 times to make sure that yes I have actually worked that many hours these past 6 weeks. When I first started, I expected to be at this point in my project during about week 2. However, I have learned that in an experiment 100 things will go wrong before 1 thing goes right, but that is just how science is and I’m finding troubleshooting not so bad now. It can be fun at times…its like a mystery. A lot of the first few weeks were spent trying to see the aggregates in both the cell culture and flow cytometry methods. We had to get the right antibodies, set the right parameters in the FACS machine, get our timings correct, etc. However, now I can truly say that we see aggregates in both methods.
Anyways, at this point in my research, I’ve found some interesting things out, but a lot of them don’t really pertain to my project. It’s funny, because every time I find something unexpected I go investigate that for a while, and my project is kind of put on hold for a couple days. After doing that several times, I think I can say that my research is going well, but my project not so much. I haven’t really been able to see any difference in the number of aggregates when the RBCs are stimulated with epinephrine in both the flow cytometry method and the cell culture method. However, I really haven’t had time to try each experiment more than once so I can’t draw any conclusions.
However, there are several interesting results I have found from simply trying to see and quantify the aggregates. First of all, I have found that despite drawing the blood in a tube with EDTA, tube with EDTA and Ca, tube with heparin, or tube with PPACK, I still see aggregates. Hence, the aggregates are not an artifact of the tube we draw the blood into. Furthermore, I have observed that not only do monocytes form aggregates, but so do lymphocytes and granulocytes. When I first started my experiment, I thought that only monocytes formed aggregates, but now I have found that lots of things do. I just got an antibody specific to monocytes to help get an idea of what percentage of the aggregates are monocytes as compared to other white blood cells. I am excited to find out on Monday!
Also, as a control, I used my own blood to isolate and grow monocytes, which was really exciting. I did a whole blood smear and giemsa stain on my blood and it was so cool to see my own blood cells and whether they form aggregates and stuff!
Outside the lab, life has been fun! I’ve moved on to cooking without recipes and just sort of experimenting. Last weekend, we went to the quarry, which was really fun, especially jumping off cliffs into the water! I saw Harry Potter this week, which I liked despite having forgotten most of the story. I’ve been swimming and playing tennis a lot, which is always fun! And I even managed to finish my second book of the summer…now I am starting Catch-22!
