Week 5 - Nada

 This week was super busy as it was filled with both research and clinical experiences. I was lucky to see a surgery that involved the removal of a very rare pediatric tumor. This tumor is incredibly aggressive and there are very limited if any, treatment options available. Dr. Greenfield's lab here at Weill Cornell is involved in many research efforts to find treatment options for patients. This involves multiple drug screening studies performed on tumor models generated from primary patient samples. Seeing as I work in a shared lab space with the researchers who work on this project, I was able to discuss and understand the incredible work that they are doing to find personalized treatments for pediatric cancers of this type. During the surgery, someone from Dr. Greenfield's lab came to collect the tumor samples that they use to generate the cell lines that are necessary for both in-vitro studies as well as creating in-vivo models. Throughout the surgery I also learned about the different surgical materials that are often used in neurosurgery to mimic biological membranes and surgical closures. This was of particular interest to me as I have some experience with tissue engineered membranes and wound closure matrix materials. It was interesting to learn about the different decisions that surgeons make in the OR with regards to which materials to use as well as their various costs. 

Later in the week, I spent the day in neuroradiology with Dr. Schweitzer where I was able to see many different cases being reviewed in the reading room. This actually included the imaging of the patient whose surgery I had seen and described above. It was particularly fascinating to see this almost come full circle and the different people that are involved in each step of the process. I also really enjoyed learning about some of the more technical aspects of MRI imaging and current techniques that are used at Weill Cornell. This includes QSM which was developed by Dr. Wang's lab. In an appropriate ending to the day, I went in to get my own brain MRI as a part of the Wang lab's research study as a healthy participant. This was an incredibly strange experience as I was anxious about not being able to stay still for the entire 25 minutes. However, thankfully I was able to and felt super lucky to then see my brain scans and all the different imaging sequences. 

Finally, in terms of my research project I received the MRI scans of the mice that we had injected throughout the past week and unfortunately we did not see a change in their tumor growth patterns when compared to the control group. I will be spending next week attempting to figure out and trouble shoot what may have gone wrong and think of the next steps.

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