Week 2 (experiments, surgery, live-demos) - Nada Naguib

This week an entirely different experience from last week. At the beginning of the week I worked with the postdocs in the Dr. Cisse's lab to interpret the flow cytometry results that we obtained from our experiments last week with C'dots and GBM cell lines. Based on this, we were able to plan our next set of experiments including an in-vivo experiment that will start next Wednesday. Our expectation is that the mice that they have been preparing for the past few weeks will in fact, have tumors by next week and we will be able to inject them with C'dots in order to see the effect that they have on these mouse models. In addition to the in-vivo work, we will be working to set up experiments to try to get the particles into the cytosol in-vitro. For these experiments however, we will need to purchase some additional equipment which will take some time to arrive. 

In addition to lab work, this week I was able to attend a surgery that Dr. Cisse was a part of. This was a joint case and therefore, it was super interesting to see the different departments collaborate and work simultaneously alongside each other in the OR. Throughout the surgery I was incredibly impressed with the OR technology and imaging capabilities. This was my first time seeing neuro-visualization software such as brainlab in use in the OR and it was extremely interesting to see! This experience definitely added a whole new perspective to working on imaging and optics technologies in lab and was very inspiring to see. Following this, I was also able to attend a live-demo of a new portable MRI. The device was very cool and incredibly powerful considering its size. It was particularly insightful to hear the questions that the doctors had for the company as they highlighted the criteria that they would be looking for in a device such as this one. I got to speak with the company representatives, one of whom was a biomedical engineer as well and I learned about his experience working in the company and his passion for the technology that they are working on. 

Finally, on Thursday I am shadowing Dr. Cisse in the clinic where I am meeting patients and seeing their diagnoses. This is insightful as it provides context for the different disease pathologies and how they present differently in different people. One thing to note, that I had not considered before was how most neurosurgery patients are referred by other departments once they notice an abnormality in their MRI/ CT scan. This is particularly interesting as they could easily not be presenting with any symptoms but simply found out by chance because they were in the hospital for another concern. Overall, this really highlights the need for early detection technology and accessible imaging modalities to enable effective diagnosis. 

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