$3,600 Responsibility and Mock Life Span Experiment! -Week 2

(Rhea - CHOP - Mitochondrial Disease Lab)

Now that I am much more acquainted with the lab members and the ways in which the lab runs, I'm being given a lot more responsibility. After learning to pour plates and spread bacteria, Fred (an undergrad) tested my skills by asking me to pour and spread my own plates without supervision. Taking great precaution, I made sure to follow the protocol correctly (ex. didn't blow up the autoclave machine, didn't let the agar solidify in the flask I prepared it in). Fred meticulously checked my final products and informed me that my plates were completely contamination free (that's a huge deal!!). Now if the lab is ever running out of plates or solutions, I can be called upon to help them out. Just the other day during my free time, I made 2 liters of S. Basal, a salt solution used to maintain the worms, and 75 new plates for Zsoka to use. Later in the week, Julian taught me about the biochemistry work in the lab. We test carbon-13 labeled worms under different conditions for their organic acids, amino acids and protein abundance by using gas chromatography/ mass spectrometry and high performance liquid chromatography. To make the samples for each type of testing, the worms have to be grown synchronously (all at the same life stage) and under the specified conditions (ex. with drug, without drug), and then collected into viles. Once in the viles, they need to be centrifuged, ground up with a little drill, and treated with certain chemicals to ensure the best results. After showing me how to make samples with the first two viles, Julian left me to do the rest saying "you probably have a steadier hand and a better eye than me anyway" in his thick Russian accent. He also reminded me that every one of the samples cost us $150 to put through testing so I made sure to be careful with each and most importantly I made sure not to mix up the order of the samples...otherwise we wouldn't know which results corresponded to which sample! Overall my second and a half week in the lab has been even more exciting than the first and the best part is that my PI, Dr. Falk, told me that at this rate, I could be starting my actual life span project next week! Woo hoo!