Peddie EXP 2017

Week1:                 After a few weeks, I have finally arrived Philadelphia. Things went a bit side track since my kitty scratched me on accident back at home and I need to get vaccinated which would not allow me to go to US till July 18 th . One thing led to another and the result is that I arrived at my lab two weeks later than the plan. But anyways, after the long wait I was really excited to meet my lab member and P.I. My P.I. is currently on a personal vocation in Europe right now and will be back next Monday. Therefore, this week, I worked alongside of Dr. Gunan, the staff member of my lab. First day was always the toughest one. But with the help of Apple map and Upenn’s website, I successfully located Dr. Mason’s lab. The first “task” I had for the lab was making a 0.5 percent agarose gel. It may doesn’t sound hard to all of you who just finished biology but my last biology-related experience was almo...

Note: Weeks 1, 2, and 3 all blend together, and so I decided to make a blog post for all three. Week 2 was my actual start at the lab, and Week 3 was a shorter week, due to the Fourth of July Holiday. So far, my lab experience has been extremely interesting and fun, if not a bit surprising. I came into this lab thinking I was going to be working with brown fat, as that is the main focus of the lab, so I was quite surprised when I found myself working with intestines instead. Before I came to the lab, my supervisor had found that in mice, whole body deletion of Prdm16 , which is required for brown fat development and maintenance, led to greatly reduced intestinal length, killing the mice within seven days of Prdm16  knockout.  This phenomenon had not been previously observed, and so the project I'm working on is an entirely brand new area of research. My first task was to genotype mice and find a particular mouse with Rosa26CreER,  an on-off switch that can be activate...

Smillow center for translational research, my lab Manas and I both arrived on Saturday to get settled into our apartment and learn about the area before beginning our time in the lab.  After a fairly stress free move in, we decided to explore the area around our apartment.  We walked around for a while and finally ended up eating at the world famous taco shop right across the street, Honest Tom's Taco Shop.  The burrito that I ordered was massive, no one was able to finish theirs either.  On Sunday, we had to figure out the essentials: go grocery shopping, find the nearest laundromat, and of course find the nearest pizza place.  The next thing for us to do was figure out how to get our Penn cards and see if we could get gym memberships.  We couldn't do either that day, and weren't allowed to get memberships at the Penn gym at all because we were too young, but we were able to get our Penn cards the next day.   Th...

My first week at Drexel was both challenging and relaxing at different points.  Travelling to an unfamiliar part in Philadelphia, one of the biggest cities in America is not an easy feat.  It took me a couple of rides on the PATCO and wandering around 15th street to finally figure out how to have a smooth commute. My first day, Monday June 19, was my longest and most tedious, being jet-lagged and recovering from a slight caffeine addiction thanks to the China trip didn’t help either.  Within ten minutes of my being in the lab, I was already watching my first rat surgery which was conducted by a graduate student (Nick).  The goal of the surgery was to isolate the hepatocyte cells from the rest of the liver.  Afterwards I began a series of introductions to different laboratory members and filled out a series of paperwork.  My PI, Dr. Bouchard then gave me and another high school student Kennadi, who started work on the same day, a personal tour of his lab ...

           I have luckily dodged the stereotypically rainy and dreary English weather; it has been slightly north of 80 degrees and the sky has been cloudless. The only English stereotypes to truly be upheld here in London are the frequency of cursing, an obsession with soccer, and a concerning prevalence of alcohol, but besides that, I have been very surprised. The food is not just fish and chips, the population is very diverse, and the people have been very friendly. (Side story: There is a large, beautiful park located about a mile away from my apartment called Hyde Park. There are soccer fields, rugby fields, a massive royal shrine, but there is also a wide, cobblestone path bordered by tall trees and small park benches. I had spent a majority of my Sunday before my true lab experience reading on one of those benches. About an hour in to my stay, I was approached by a homeless man asking, "Ey mate, would ya mind offerin me a fag?" My...

Writing this on Friday, June 23, after completing my first week of EXP at Columbia University, I can certainly say that my experience is shaping up to be quite unique. Unfortunately, my sleeping arrangement through a friend that I thought was secure since October fell through, and I commute every day from my home in Skillman, New Jersey, to the 20th floor of the Columbia Presbyterian Hospital on 168th Street in New York City.  T hankfully, I am no stranger to long train rides and commuting, so this does not really pose an issue to me. On my first day, I got up at 7:20, took an 8:30 train that brought me to New York Penn Station, on 34th Street. Thankfully, the A subway line brings me directly to 168th Street, so from the time I step on the train to my arrival at the workspace, I never really set foot outside for more than 30 seconds.   I arrived at the hospital around 10:30, but I did not have to be there until 12:30 (I wanted to be extra early on my first day j...

My Lab Starting work was terrifying yet exhilarating. I moved in the Sunday before I started and my dad walked with me to my building where I was going to meet my professor. That evening, after I settled in, my sister took me to Baby Blues, which is an AMAZING barbecue place not too far from my (well, technically my sister’s) house. We sat and caught up on some things, as sisters do after not seeing each other for about a week. She calmed me down about starting work and told me that I shouldn’t be scared because it will be a great experience. Boy, was she right. Dr. Taylor's notes from his explanation of Census Transforms  and where I worked before I had access to the lab space                My meeting with my PI was at 10am in his office, so I woke up at 7:30, left my house at about 8:30, and I got to the building at 8:45. Thankfully, there is a Starbucks across the street so I just sat there for...

Week One of my time at Johns Hopkins University got off to an interesting start on Monday, June 19! My Airbnb is within walking distance of JHU's East Baltimore (hospital and medical school) campus, so I began my first full day in Baltimore with a brisk (albeit warm) walk to the Volunteer Services Office to pick up my official volunteer ID. I left early to make sure that I had sufficient time to get my badge and make it to my lab before 9, even with any directional difficulties! I later got to Ross Research Building, where my lab is located, ten minutes before 9 and met my fellow lab members. Katie, an undergraduate student from Muhlenberg College who is also a summer intern like me, was the first person I met. She introduced me to Monica, the lab manager and technician, as well as to Paul, a postdoc at JHU. The fourth-year JHU grad student I would be working with, Snow, came in a bit later, as did HeeSun, another fourth-year JHU grad student. I met my PI, Dr. Daniela Cihakova, sho...