Mikki Dennies Post #4

On Wednesday at my internship, as soon as I got there I learned how to snap freeze tissues, so that they can be used for other studies. I found this to be a super cool and fast way to freeze things. Basically, we poured liquid nitrogen into a bucket, and dropped a tube with the tissue into the bucket. After about five minutes, the tissue is frozen inside the tube and placed into a freezer. After that, I watched Shelby, one of the girls in the lab, cannulate a tissue, so that it can be tested. We spend most of Wednesday testing and looking at the graphs. I was surprised to see how often they test tissue, it's pretty much an everyday thing, and I don't think that I can sit at a computer all day and test materials. Thursday was different, it was my last day, so we ended up doing a lot more than testing. When I got there, we checked on the cells that we had cultured (photo 1), and since cells are alive, they ended up growing and making more. I really enjoyed cell culturing because it was very chemistry based and I liked mixing media. I was also super excited to spend my last day with the mice. I know that sounds strange, but I'd much rather ween mice than look at a computer. With the mice, we took them from their parents, and separated them by male and female. The lab mainly wants the females since they are researching Pelvic Organ Prolapse, which occurs in females. After getting the females, we tagged their ears so that they can be genotyped and tested for the gene that the lab needs for research. After spending two weeks in the lab, I learned that it's not for me. Although it was very different from what I expected, I am still very happy I did it because I made new friends and got to experience the job before I spent all that time trying to pursue it.