Masa, Entry #1, First Week

The first few days at the Hussaini lab at the Taub Institute at Columbia University have truly been eye opening, but certainly not without little bumps on the way. The NYC subway can be surprisingly complicated, as I boarded the wrong train in a rush on the first day, and was whisked off to the middle of the Bronx, eventually wandering around before pulling out Google Maps to realize my error. After I finally arrived, I was introduced to my post doc Eden, a part time employee at the lab and a med student who helped me settle in.

One of the first things that struck me was how small the lab was. With only two lab benches and a separate animal room dedicated to the lab, it was incredibly cozy. I especially liked how unlike bigger labs, I could easily interact with my PI who even came down multiple times a day to chat and give me tips and feedback on my work. Everyone at the lab is also very kind and caring, always willing to answer a question or check on something I'm not sure of.

My particular project, at least for the first few weeks, would be to manufacture and put together microdrives to be implanted into the brains of mice. I quickly learned that because of the fragile nature of the Hussaini lab's research, everything I was working with would be very small and that I would be spending the majority of the day hunched over a microscope. Specifically, I had to twist wire together using a machine to create 4 conductive tetrodes, to then be inserted into a microdrive and looped around 16 channels, all the while making sure that the tetrode remains straight. The channels are then coated with a conductive paint and then plated using a machine with platinum to improve conductivity. Unfortunately, I do not have the steadiest hands so at the beginning there was a lot of trial and error. Luckily for me, Eden, Abid (my PI), and Gus (another postdoc) were always there to guide me along the way and point out potential improvement.

 

Making the tetrodes                           Plating the microdrives

I hope to improve and continue further on my project in the coming weeks, as well as learn more about the science behind the data.