Welcome to my week 3 blog post!
First, I’m going to look back on last
Friday’s lab meeting. Dr. Conrad and her students attend a meeting every week
for an hour and a half. The meeting is structured much like a small classroom
(some of the students said it was similar to the human event class offered at
Barrett), everyone sitting in a circle with a projector to keep us on task. For
the first half of the meeting, Dr. Conrad reviewed everyone’s duties in the
lab. There are a few studies going on, and she divides up the tasks based on
everyone’s interests. The majority of the current studies involve observing
rat’s behavior in various mazes and recording it in Excel. For the second half
of the meeting, a student leads the discussion on an article. We reviewed the
paper that I mentioned in last week’s post. I think that lab meetings are a
great way to ensure that everyone is on task, and it was a great way for me to
meet more of the students.
Now, back to this week. This week I spent
a lot more time in the lab. My paperwork is still being processed, so I
couldn’t go into the wet lab. But, I was given something that could be done
sitting at a desk. The desks at which I spent all 15 hours this week look like
this:
The task that I have been assigned is
called Sholl Analysis. This is part of the aging and stress study. They are looking at how stress impacts the brain in both young
and old mice. For Sholl Analysis, I am given a binder filled with drawings
of neurons. They are working with pyramidal neurons, meaning that they have two
sections, apical and basal. I also have an outline with a bunch of circles of different radii, and I need to count how many dendrites (the branched extensions of a
nerve cell) go through each circle and record the number in a table. I do this for both the apical and basal part of the neuron. It looks like this:
For the majority of this week, I have been
working on Sholl Analysis, but, today, I got a tour of the part of the lab
where they keep the rats. I met up with the lab technician and she took me
around. They have rooms to keep all the equipment that they need (things like
cages, water bottles, bedding, food, etc.). They also have rooms to house the
rats involved in the various studies. It looks like my paperwork is getting
approved and I will hopefully have clearance to start branching out from Sholl
Analysis in the upcoming weeks.
Gillian,
ReplyDeleteThe meeting sounds like it was insightful and you were able to experience part of what college will be like. Your week sounds like it was fun but I was a bit confused by what you were doing in the Sholl analysis. Good luck with your paperwork and keep up the good work.
The Sholl Analysis is basically a way to measure the branching of neurons and how that is impacted by chronic stress. The longer the dendrite and the more branching that occurs, the more circles it'll cross. A message will travel farther along a neuron if the dendrite is longer. Hopefully that helped clear up what I am doing. Thanks for your question!
DeleteHey Gillian! Glad most of the paperwork is out of the way so you can start with a topic you are enthused to pursue. I just had one question, does branching out from Sholl Analysis mean less paperwork or using another analysis tool? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHi Kayvon! I'm not too sure what branching out from the Sholl Analysis will entail; I've just been promised that I'll be able to start working on different projects soon. The graduate student whom I am shadowing thinks that I will be able to look at neurons under a microscope, draw neurons, and watch the other students work with rats. Thanks for your question!
DeleteHi Gillian,
ReplyDeleteI like the meeting that they do to keep everyone on track....sounds like a fantastic way to communicate. Do you know why they are working specifically with pyramidal neurons?
Anyway, keep up the good work. I hope you will be able to get away from that little desk this week!
Jakob Krygier
I'm not too sure why they are working specifically with pyramidal neurons. After googling it, my best bet is that these are the neurons primarily involved in neuroplasticity. They grow and differentiate quite frequently and, therefore, are probably more impacted by stress. I'll be sure to confirm this answer with the other students in the lab. Thanks for your question!
DeleteHey Gillian!
ReplyDeleteI love the style of the meeting; sitting in a circle makes people feel like they're part of a community and I think those kinds of meetings are most effective. Were you able to participate in the meeting as well or were you just observing? I can't wait to hear more about your time in lab!
Shivalee Nigam
I was able to participate in the meeting as well. In fact, Dr. Conrad and her students encouraged me to ask and answer questions. It was a great way to learn more about what they're doing in the lab.
DeleteHi Gillian,
ReplyDeleteThe meeting seems like an efficient way to stay on track and the way it is held is very interesting. I can't wait to hear more about the Sholl Analysis. Thank You.
-Vara Vungutur
Thanks for following along!
DeleteHi Gillian,
ReplyDeleteThank you for having pictures to show us. I would find it very useful if you could show more pictures of your experience at ASU
Sincerely Bhavik Rajaboina
I'm hoping to take a lot more pictures as it's something I really enjoy doing :).
DeleteHi Gillian!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you're having such a great time at ASU! I look forward to hopefully next week hearing about your experience about the wet lab, but otherwise, Sholl Analysis research sounds interesting as well. What is the correlation between the number of dendrites and aging and stress? Is it a linear relationship?
I'm happy to see your experience has been going well.
-Anya Wahal
Chronic stress greatly impacts the branching of neurons which relates to the length of the dendrites, for, the longer the dendrites, the more branching has occurred. Generally, chronic stress will decrease the length of the neurons in the hippocampus (which is invloved in memory) and increase the length in the amygdala (which is involved in the fear response). The longer the neuron, the farther a message can travel along it, so decreasing the length impairs that region of the brain. Thanks for your question!
DeleteHey Gillian! I'm glad to see that this week went well, but I'm sorry to hear that your paperwork still hasn't been approved. I like how you included pictures of your workplace and experiences at ASU. I hope to see more! How do the number of dendrites relate to stress? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteYes, the number of dendrites is greatly impacted by chronic stress. I explained that a bit in my reply to the above comment. Hopefully that helps!
DeleteHey Gillian! It's so great to hear that you can soon begin doing things other than taking tests. The Sholl Analysis seems very interesting. I can't wait to hear what happens to you this week!
ReplyDeleteThanks Dani!
DeleteWow Gillian! I'm glad to see that you have made some progress! I completely agree, those meetings are a good way to make sure everyone is doing their jobs. Sorry about the lab issue, but at least you have your shroll analysis!
ReplyDeleteThanks Frida! It's called Sholl Analysis, not shroll ;).
DeleteHi Gillian! I liked how you included pictures in this week's blog. I am sorry that you did not get to do a wet lab. Did yo get to participate in the meetings or were you just sitting in on them. I can't wait to see more!
ReplyDeleteI was encouraged to ask and answer questions in the meeting. It was very interactive. Thanks for following along!
Delete