Week 6 - Erica Wagner

During my final week of clinical immersion, I said my goodbyes to my clinical mentor and the lab I’ve been working in. I spent most of the week wrapping up experiments and selecting samples to bring back to Ithaca for further analysis.

In Dr. Chen’s lab, I prepped samples for a glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) assay using my stem cell (SC) derived pancreatic islets and the SC derived-islets encapsulated in microgel followed by an ELISA to measure the amount of insulin produced by the cells and their total insulin content. I also imaged the immunostained cerebral organoids, processed all the images, and cryosectioned a few microgel encapsulated SC derived islets. I will finish sectioning and immunostaining these samples back in Ithaca.

Overall, the clinical immersion experience has been incredibly informative and motivating for my own research. Being in a lab dedicated to stem cell research, especially beta cell differentiations, will aid in my thesis work. Seeing surgeries, meeting patients, and watching the process from pre- to post-surgery has given me a better perspective of patient and clinician needs which in turn will make me a better engineer and researcher. I look forward to continuing collaborations and seeing where the research leads.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rachel Yerden- Week 6

I spent the final week of immersion concluding my research work, setting up future collaborations, and completing a few tasks I wanted to achieve before returning to Ithaca. To conclude my research, I created presentations for Dr. Hartl's group, the Bonassar lab, and our summer cohort. I also had lab members complete the quiz I had created for our MRI grading scale. To continue our collaboration, I set up a sample pipeline, protocols, and paperwork to allow for future data and tissue collection. I established a method for shipping disc tissue so I can co-culture these discs with stem cells upon my return to Ithaca. I established paperwork for collecting measurements for the cannula I am developing. I made excel sheets to organize this data. I spoke with HSS to create a collaboration for future mechanical testing. I worked on a histological report on images used for a study using materials manufactured by our collaborators at 3DBio. Thursday, I shadowed Dr. Spector in the clinic, le...
Read more

Week 6: Allison [A Letter from the Student]

Image
Dear Dr. Glesby,     I saw an art exhibit at the MOMA the other day: "General Idea’s  Magi© Bullet by AA Bronson". Hundreds of silver pill-shaped balloons filled the expanse of the ceiling lit only from below. When it was installed, at the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 90's, two members of Bronson's art collective had died.  The gallery label was below at eye level.     " Filling the gallery with pill-shaped mylar balloons, Magi© Bullet in part functions as a metaphor for seeking a temporary remedy for an illness—physical or social—rather than examining its root causes. As the balloons’ helium levels decrease, they fall; you are invited to take a deflated balloon home with you. The installation thus gradually disappears over time, evoking the lives needlessly lost to aids because of state abandonment—and prompting comparison to the current global pandemic and the harm it’s wrought on our most vulnerable communities."     Though I looked ...
Read more

BME Immersion - Sixth week 6

 Last Days of Immersion: This week was the most exciting of them all. I finally got to see a liver transplant surgery. Liver failure is a common disease in which the immune system attacks liver cells which tends to cause severe inflammations and internal damages. This patient ultimately made it through a successful 12 hour+ surgery. In terms of the immersion deliverables, the imaging patient data that I gathered from Eileen was crucial for the completion of the project. Unfortunately, it was difficult to view the data without having access to the Weill Cornell Medicine account. Therefore, Dr. Shou will be continuing with developing the hospital's ERCP/MRCP protocol.  Overall, I managed to say my goodbye's to the TRAUMA and BURN team. It was bittersweet since I learned to respect and admire the tenacity the team has shown these past few weeks when it comes to patient care. This experience was life-changing since I was able to appreciate the hard work the men and women do behind...
Read more