Week 2 - Erica Wagner

Starting my second week of clinical immersion, I shadowed Dr. Chandwani for in patient rounds. We visited patients from a few different surgery units including liver transplant. I have never shadowed a clinician before, so I was expecting the rounds to be just Dr. Chandwani and a few other people when in reality there was a large team consisting of fellows, surgeons, pharmacists, RNs, PAs, and social workers. Each day began with a discussion of all the patient files including details from all lab reports pre-surgery to post-surgery and a discussion of each new round of tests or therapies to be given that day. After discussing all the patient files, the team visited each patient for check ins, assessing not only their surgical site, but also their mental status and pain levels. It was eye-opening to see how many different people are involved in each patient’s case and all the different elements that must be monitored daily or even hourly. The experience made me really appreciate all the working parts required to make transplant and tumor removal surgeries successful.

In Dr. Chen’s lab, I excitedly started the beta cell differentiation! The cells have been growing well and I have also prepped the cells to start another round of differentiation in a few days. In about 3 weeks, I will have insulin secreting beta cells that I can then use for transplant experiments. I also spent time this week cryosectioning tissue samples containing human pancreatic islets from COVID-19 patients. Once I finish cryosectioning, I plan to start immunostaining the tissue samples. I am also going to assist in a gene editing project beginning next week which I am looking forward to as I will learn many tools that will be helpful for my future projects.

I explored more of NYC this past week with some classmates. We ate in Chinatown and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. We also spent Sunday at the Museum of Modern Art which contained many intriguing collections including Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night and Salvador Dali’s The Persistence of Memory.

View from the Brooklyn Bridge


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