This week was rather relaxing in comparison to last week. As my mentor had to attend classes at times, I was allowed to come in late on some days (underage interns must have supervision!). My work this week was mainly on cell culture and 3D printing training. One of the goals of our project is to see how matrix elasticity directs stem cell differentiation in confluent and non-confluent circumstances. We especially want to see if stem cells can be directed to differentiate into osteogenic and adipogenic cells, so three groups, including a control group, were set up on each of the two well plates that we experimented with. On one well plate, the cells were placed in confluent environment, whereas on the other one they were non-confluent. I was responsible for changing the media in each well and taking pictures of the cells every day. Meanwhile, I was learning how to use the two 3D printers in the lab I was staying in; one of them is called Robomama, and the other is Bioprinter. Making the printer print wasn't hard, but it was really the coding part that screwed up most of the time.
Besides my own work, I spent some time observing and helping out with other lab members' research. One British post-doc (from real Cambridge) was doing antibody staining the other day and gave me a brief lecture while he worked. His project is to develop organoids in the channels that have been printed out, on contrary to my mentor's main goal, which is to print the cells directly.
So far I have explored the city a little bit. Boston is very historic, in comparison to many other cities in the U.S. I also tried out some restaurants in the nearby area so that I don't have to frequent the unforgettable law school cafeteria.
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| Bioprinter was originally an industrial mill. The engineers in the lab modified the machine by putting on the top of a microscope and made it a 3D printer that weighs a hundred pounds. |
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| Bioprinter |
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| Robomama that weighs 4,000 pounds |
Peace.
Last of all, WHAT'S WRONG WITH SPAIN.
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