This is my first photo for my photo essay. I chose this because a big part of this lab I’m in is collaboration. In this photo you can see three people working on the same bench and they are working on the same experiment. From the left: Grace, a graduate student here a UCSD and my mentor. In the chair is Jeffrey, another graduate student at UCSD. On the very right is Guha, an undergrad here at UCSD working under/with Jeffrey. Although Jeffrey and Grace have different focuses in the lab, these are one of the moments where there’s overlap because they need to make the same thing for both of their future experiments.
This is an image that came from some staining Jae and I did. This was such a cool image to see after experimenting to create this. In this image, you can see some of the blue-stained cells kind of pointing to each other to create what is called a neural rosette. Every time I look at this image there’s something new to see and focus on, and this isn’t even the full slice of organoid (lab-grown brain). It felt so gratifying to be able to see that something that we did worked and looked like how we wanted it to.
Lab meetings are a large part of being in a lab. Every week on Friday one of the scientists in the lab presents where they are in their process. During these meetings they go over what it is they are focusing on and why, and then they go into the finer details of the experiments they did and what they found. I love lab meetings because there is so much to learn each time. Even throughout the presentations everyone asks questions and pushes each other's thinking. Sometimes the lab also brings in other scientists who are focusing on something similar to our lab so that they can present on their findings so far. I love the process of discussing everything and learning new things every day.
This was such a fun day. Grace had a class that morning so another person in the lab, named Zoe took us to see the mice that they work on. We had to get all suited up with coverings over our hair, clothes, and shoes. They do this each time so that germs don’t get to mice. The travel to the mice felt a little shady because we had to go to a different back elevator to take down to the basement. The hallways to the mice is pretty quiet but you can smell the mice right when you get through the room where you put all the coverings on. Zoe showed us the different mice they have for their lab, and showed us how they check on them. There were even some mice that were just born in one container. They were so small and pink. I’m not sure that I would like to work with mice because they are living things, but what you can utilize them for is pretty cool.
This is probably my favorite photo because I get to talk about my amazing mentor Grace. Shown in the photo she is teaching us about a concept that was mentioned in a scientific journal we were reading in time for journal club the following week. Every time either Jae or I have a question, Grace never fails to do her best to explain what we want to know. She makes sure that we are all on the same page and strives for us to understand what we want to understand. When we do experiments with her she narrates what we’re doing and talks about the why of what we’re doing. She is such an amazing mentor and I hope to keep in contact with her after this month of internship.