Week 5 - Erica Wagner

During my fifth week of clinical immersion, I focused more on research and the use of patient samples. I visited the Elemento Lab and learned how they make tumor organoids from patient samples such as breast cancer samples. I also brought some microgel from my lab in Ithaca to try culturing with the cancer organoids to see if this can stabilize sensitive cancer lines.

In Dr. Chen’s lab, I have 8 beta cell differentiations in progress. I was also able to try beta cells with microgel from my lab in Ithaca to explore the benefits of a 3D environment. Furthermore, I finished immunostaining the pancreatic islets and imaged the slides. I also finished sectioning the cerebral organoids and started immunostaining them. Next, I plan to section some lung organoids, image the stained cerebral organoids, and potentially image the lung organoids if I have enough time in my final week. Next week, I also plan to run a glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) assay on my beta cells.

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