Week 1-2 at the Mendelsohn Lab

Hi my name is Jason and I am working at the Mendelsohn lab for the summer. I am beginning my second week here at the lab and already feeling more comfortable. When I arrived at the Columbia Irving Cancer Research Center and stepped into the lab, almost 10 days ago, I was nervous and really early. I got there thirty minutes early thinking that was the right thing to do, but ultimately waited for the next thirty minutes worrying that I was in the wrong building or that they had forgotten about me. Carolina, one of the researchers at the lab, arrived minutes later after my minor panic attack and I was relieved. She was told by my PI, Dr. Mendelsohn, that this was my first day and showed me to the lab. I soon got to meet all six other students and researchers. They were a mix of a medical student, graduate students, and post docs and all welcomed me to the lab. The Mendelsohn lab studies urological cell biology, specifically bladder cancer. Because bladder cancer has many variations and can only be differentiated through histology (the study of tissue through examination under the microscope), the course of treatment may be inaccurate depending on what each histologist sees. This makes potential treatment options useless if the histologist makes the wrong diagnosis. The primary goal of this lab is to find certain genetics markers in the mass growing on the bladder to determine which kind of cancer it is (Transitional cell bladder cancer, non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, invasive bladder cancer, or squamous cell bladder cancer). For the first couple days, I spent my time following, watching, and reading. I eventually learned what my primary job would be at the lab; put simply, it is to paraffin section and to stain. Paraffin sectioning is the process of cutting thin films (5nm) of tissue, in my case mouse bladder tissue or a mouse embryo, embedded into a block of paraffin wax to be then put on slides for further examination. Dan, a medical student, taught me how to paraffin section and it was very difficult at first. The thin film of tissue is so delicate and sticky that it either folds on itself or just rips apart before I could even get close to putting it into the water and onto the slide. After about two days, I got the technique down. Once I would finish the paraffin sectioning, I would move these slides for staining. I have learned two types of staining so far: ABC staining and H&E staining. I just follow the protocol and time how long I put the slides into the numerous solutions; it is very straightforward. (Actually, tomorrow I am going to learn a new type of staining technique called fluorescent staining. I don't really know what it is yet, but it sounds very interesting.) After an hour of reading if I have time, I end my day hopping on the A train and then the M66 to make my way home.

--- [I'll put up photos on the next post.]