Much Ado About Everything
This week was my first in the lab with Dr. Norman. I'm not really sure any part of my first day is particularly outstanding in meaning so I guess I should just start from the beginning.
First off, I didn't have much material to read prior so I went in a little bit worried about finding a method for this particular madness. Then, once I got to AMC, I was surprised to find out that my security badge did not, in fact, work on the research building doors. But it was a good thing that they had all the lab rooms' phone numbers next to the elevator so don't worry, I didn't just stand in the lobby for the whole day. Anyway, once I got up there and offered some cringe-worthily awkward introductions to the kindest and most helpful post-doctoral fellows ever, I got to the science part of the day. The first thing Dr. Norman taught me how to do was pick the C. Elegans out of an agar culture and identify whether they were males or hermaphrodites, and the stage of development each one was at. Now, this process took a substantial amount of time and practice because I had to learn how to coordinate my hand movements with what I was seeing through the microscope... it's like doing sports through a microscope... I can't even do sports in real life.
Another tricky part of this was that when you are picking the worms, you have to make sure that the agar e. Coli bacteria culture remains as a level sheet. Otherwise, if the platinum pick pierces the culture, then the worms will quickly gravitate towards that hole and burrow there, making it very difficult to study them. So although this was particularly tedious and at times frustrating, I was able to get the hang of it soon enough. You're probably wondering what the purpose of picking worms could possibly serve, I was wondering the very same thing.
But first, something related that I just want to acknowledge because I really appreciated it was that Dr. Norman and the post-doc fellows were far less concerned about getting my help in the more menial tasks for their projects than they were about helping me find a project of my own. I realized that they taught me how to pick worms so that I would be able to start my own population of them and develop an original experiment from start to finish. I'm not sure why, but I just didn't really expect that to happen right off the bat. My sentiment towards this opportunity is a little mixed, to be completely honest. I am extremely grateful for having access to top-of-the-line tools in a real lab with real experts, you have no idea how much of a difference that makes with me. But on the other hand, I can't help but feel as though I am being entrusted with far too much privilege and freedom.
I suppose the worms aren't at all rare or terribly hard to grow but it was just a little strange to be given that ownership right from the beginning from people who didn't even really know me that well.
Anyway, once I got some practice with picking the worms, I got a new agar plate and transferred a 5:1 ratio of hermaphrodites:males. That way, if I placed them in a 15 degree refrigerator, they would have produced progeny of about 200-300 worms - enough to conduct an experiment - by the time I would be coming back to the lab.
The next order of business was to meet with Dr. Norman and discuss options for a reasonably attainable summer goal/experiment. It's a really good thing that this was Dr. Norman's biggest concern because as we learned last year, I'm not very good about doing that. So I had a few different choices to make. The first was whether or not I wanted to study Alzheimer's in the worms - that's part of Dr. Norman's own project. I wasn't too sure how to feel about that. I know that just because it didn't work out the first time around doesn't mean that I should completely abandon the idea, so I'm still thinking about that part.
The other thing I had to decide was the part of the nervous system that I would like to study. I have a little more concrete answer for this one; I'm probably going to focus on the nerve ring which is comparable to the human brain. It's in the "head" of the worm, which can really only be found because it's laterally opposite of the tail. I also want to focus on the nerve ring because that's where the glia are.
So that means, yes, I've chosen to study the Glymphatic System. The good thing about this is that no one has really ventured down this route in the worm world so Dr. Norman has confirmed that it would be original. I won't delineate my exact thesis here mostly because I have a meeting with Dr. Norman tomorrow to discuss it and come up with a plan of attack - but stay tuned, I'll definitely have to debrief after that meeting.
That's where I'm at, I guess. This experience in the lab is a new and rather frightening one but things are happening and I'm kind of finding my way through it all as I go along. I've been given much material to read and make sense of but having that this year is definitely not as frustrating as it was last year because there are actual humans available and willing to help me understand these things.
The other thing that I've started this week is volunteering at the nursing home which I was also at all through last summer. I think I'm the only volunteer they could get this year so the week has me constantly bouncing between the lab and the nursing home. I'm going to say this now because I think I need to see it in writing, but I feel like this factor might come back to bite me later on. I want to devote complete time and attention to both things but there is only so much energy one has in order to give it. Not to mention the heavy reading I must do to prepare for my work in the lab and general baseline knowledge for my project. I don't think I'm at a place where I can definitively say that I need to lessen/stop one thing or the other so I might just play it by ear but this is all part of that balance I need to learn how to achieve.
So by tomorrow, I will have a clear answer as to what my thesis actually is and the time/materials I will require to go about proving it. Only then does my real work start.