Today is a rough day for me. I have a 9 hr experiment, seminar, and need to prep for an hr long talk I'm giving tomorrow morning...ugh. And I'm still determined to sneak in a workout this evening ;) On days with the most stress, I crave a killer workout...I'm thinking a 60' cycling class should do the trick!
I was recently thinking of why I went into research rather than studying medicine. Science/research is a strange world, at least the molecular biology world. For those of you in research, when was the last time you actually saw anything you were researching? What I mean is, everything we do and study is invisible to the eye. I described it to the manfriend once as a 'blind artist'. The artist is clearly doing and creating something, but it's only visualized by others. In our science world, we are delivering drugs, killing cancer cells, measuring how fast a drug binds/releases from a cancer cell, etc. None of these things we can see, but they are definitely happening..
Example: Today I purified DNA from bacteria that I will 'chop up' and rearrange (aka clone) until it's in a particular order that generates a gene. I will then put this gene into a cancer cell and determine if the cancer cell dies. I will not be able to instantly see if the cancer cell dies, but will have to do many tests to determine this.
I briefly browsed through my lab notebook to see what (if any) experiments I can visualize. Here's one example of what I've got:
What you see there is DNA. Because DNA is negatively charged, I'm able to apply a voltage to the 'solution' it's in and the DNA will travel to the positive pole. You are able to see this DNA because I added a dye to it which fluoresces under UV light....cool, eh?
So I guess what I've learned from thinking about this, is scientists need a lot of patience. It's a fantastic and thrilling field full of opportunity and the ability to really make a difference in the world...but not a field of instant gratification...maybe hence the 5-year PhD program...????
Whelp, back to work. Well first one of these:
and then back ;)
- Lauren
Hello!
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to say I found your blog and find it really interesting! I am a senior at the University of Colorado, and my major is Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology. I have worked in an Aging Lab as well as a Cancer Research lab that I have thoroughly enjoyed... which is why I find your blog really relatable!
This past semester, I took an Immunology class and we studied NK and T cells. Out of curiosity, are you trying to see if those cells will induce killing into cancer cells that express abnormal proteins at all? My teacher vaguely covered this... which is why I am asking? Thank you. = )
@Brenda Hey Brenda! Thanks for reading! Your program soudns great, I was only able to study biochemistry (or biology) as an undergrad.
ReplyDeleteYou are spot on with your guess! We target overexpressed tumor antigens by either synthetic drugs or one's own immune cells.
Do you plan to go to grad or med school?
I'm definitely not a biologist, but as a student studying hearing, it's definitely odd to have so many seemingly concrete ideas coming from one little ear and all of its functions. So I can get what you're saying!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I stumbled upon your blog!
YAY gel electrophoresis! and you're so right about the "blind artist" thing!
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