Hello! It is Alex and this is my sixth week at the Cohen Lab at CHOP/ UPenn!
This week was more exciting because I spent a lot of time in the main lab in Abramson with the rest of the lab. I talked to more people this week than I have throughout my entire lab experience. I did not realize how isolated I was researching in a different building from everyone else. Working in both buildings is exciting because I work alone in the morning and in the afternoon I work with other people. I have learned more about what other members in the lab do this week.
I do not have a specific project- I am helping Colin with his research, but a lot of the other people in the lab have their own projects. Most of these project revolve around behavior, recording data, analyzing data, ext. A lot of the cool experiments that go on happen in Abramson. THese experiments would be cutting out brains and stimulating brain cells with electrodes. The animal behavior research that I am doing is important too, I need to figure out how it plays into Colin's research so I will find out in my last two weeks in the lab. On Monday I walked into the lab and I saw a few people I did not know. I think that one of them is an undergraduate intern and he would be the next youngest person in the lab besides me. Monday was my "Bring in Food" Day! On Sunday I baked dark chocolate brownies and then brought them on the train with me in tupperware. I was actually pretty nervous to bring in the food because it would be my first time in the main lab in a while. I spent the morning in CTRB and around noon came in to give everyone food. I thanked everyone for letting me research with them this summer. In the afternoon I worked on a second project. It is not exciting- just something to do- I am basically just looking at old photos of brain slices that Colin took on a fancy microscope and editing them on Adobe photoshop. Friday was probably my most exciting day at the lab so far because someone else was researching in CTRB with me! Her name is Jackie and she is a nurse at UPenn that also works in the lab. She was giving her mice brain injury using the fluid machine I showed everyone in an earlier post. It was sad to see her give the mice TBI but it was also really cool! I am also glad that I had someone else to talk to while I was doing my research. She told me about everyone's specific projects in the lab (although not in a lot of detail) and she told me how the lab was getting really expensive equipment next year that would allow them to put electrodes in the brain while the mice are alive. With this advancement the lab would be able to do more behavior research with TBI on live mice. We also talked about animal research as a whole and the primate facilities on sub-level D. She told me she might be able to get me in to see it! That would be so amazing because I have been wanting to see those facilities since the first week but security is really tight around all of these facilities. According to Jackie, each mouse costs $27 but each primate study costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. In the mornings I run the T-maze and in the afternoons I go to the main lab to look at data and I'm glad I have more research to analyze during the day. I like conducting behavior research and then analyzing research because it gives me more exposure to different types of lab work.
Next week I am starting 1 minute trials and I am expecting the mice to be less accurate in the alternations because they will probably forget what side of the maze they were forced to choose the first time.
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