Julia Hu Entry #1 First Week, First Impressions

My first week at the Fuccillo lab overall went very smoothly. My lab has three undergraduate students, two graduate students, one research assistant, one postdoc, and of course, my PI, Dr. Fuccillo. Our lab is connected to two other labs next door, and I have enjoyed interacting with people from both my lab and the neighboring ones. (Fun fact 1: the name of the daughter of the two PI’s next door, whom are a married couple, is Giulia too, and she is also currently in high school.) The graduate student whom I work with the most, Felicia, is working on a project with the ultimate goal of finding a common circuit defect across multiple autism-associated mouse models., and I am mainly going to be helping with this project. Although during the school year I mostly read articles about the behavioral tests performed on the mice, so far, I have been doing mostly molecular cloning as well as some brain slicing and mounting.

On my first day, Felicia explained her project more in depth to me as well as the different methods she and the lab use to obtain data and the molecular mechanisms underlying the brains of mice with autism spectrum disorders. I was pleasantly surprised that, thanks to Dr. Peretz, Dr. Venanzi, and all the articles I read, I actually understood a good portion of her explanation. Then, Felicia taught me how to slice horizontal cross-sections of mouse brains using a vibratome, an instrument that uses a vibrating razor blade to cut through tissue. Although it seems as if the slicing should go relatively smoothly since a machine is doing the cutting, it is actually quite tricky to ensure that the brain slices do not rip (they are only 50 microns in thickness which is extremely thin) and that the blade cuts the slices evenly. Felicia also showed me how to mount the slices onto microscope slides and cover them with coverslips. Once again, this process sounds quite simple; however, it certainly is not as easy as it seems since the brain slices become folded and tear very easily. These slides will then be observed under a microscope and undergo immunohistochemistry, a process I will learn more about later this week.

Bottom: Vibratome slicing the mouse brain. Top: Image of a brain slice with a Cav Cre virus under the microscope

Later on, Dr. Fucillo asked Felicia and me to do some molecular cloning, where we construct recombinant DNA molecules to insert into a replicating vehicle such as a plasmid. The molecular cloning will allow us to create viruses to inject into the mouse brains, and these viruses can be used for many purposes including labeling and stimulation. The molecular cloning requires techniques such as PCR and gel electrophoresis, which I have had experience with performing, but it also includes processes such as gel extractions, ligation and picking bacterial colonies, which were new to me. In general, these techniques have required me to spend a great amount of time with our good friend, the micropipette.

The bacterial colonies

Our lab holds a meeting every Wednesday morning, where we briefly share what we are each working on. Additionally, one member of the lab is assigned to present a paper at the meeting, and we all collaborate to analyze and understand the figures in the paper. Although some of the figures are quite complicated, the people in my lab were nice enough to slowly explain and simplify some of the concepts during the meeting to help me to understand. The meeting allowed me to learn a lot more about behavioral assays, the striatum, and the different types of interneurons.

Overall, I have really enjoyed my experience at the lab so far as the people are very amiable and down-to-earth. I am fortunate enough to be able to interact with my PI often since our lab isn’t huge. (Fun fact 2: His son also plays the cello.) I am still adjusting to living alone, but living at the Radian apartments has been pretty comfortable and convenient since it is close to so many food options. :)

Bobby's Burger Palace

Thai food!

I hope everyone else is having a great time at their labs! Looking forward, I will be watching a graduate student perform a surgery on a mouse and inject the virus into its brain. If I am lucky, I will have the opportunity to perform an injection myself. I am excited to spend the next weeks with everyone in my lab!