Blog 7: 3/29/16

Hello Everyone!

Sorry I didn't post last week. I took the week off as my spring break.

However, after a well-rested week, I couldn't wait to come back to the lab and start my work again.

On Monday, I cast a gel on PCR samples that were run over the weekend by another intern. The samples turned out quite well except for the last few. Another thing I did on Monday involved a different mice species. These species are Naidu1 crossed with TSC. Naidu1 are the mice used when studying Rett Syndrome. TSC is a multi-system genetic disease called tuberous sclerosis that causes benign tumors to grow in the brain and other vital organs like the kidneys, heart, eyes, lungs, and skin. The reason these two mice species were crossed is because TSC activates MTOR pathways, which increases cell growth and metabolism while Rett Syndrome lacks this activation. This allows us to study Rett in species slightly easier. With these samples, I followed a new PCR protocol with new primers and ran a gel. It did not show up too clearly but that can be a direct result of the uniformity failure in the PCR machine itself.

Today, I ran a gel on the samples from yesterday and then uploaded another set of samples into the PCR. However, this time I followed my usual old protocol since these samples were just Naidu1. I ran the gel on these samples but did not have time to image them so I am not 100% it worked.\

Unfortunately, I will not be going into the internship for the rest of the week since I will be doing a few college visits the end of this week and the end of next. However, any work that I will be able to analyze on my computer or work on such as my article, I will definetely be doing so.

That's it for this week!

Thanks,
Pooja