The past two weeks, my lab partner Reem and I have been working with Sarah who is responsible for the handling the mice aspect of the protocol. Reem and I handle the mice and along with Sarah's guidance pre-condition them. It was intimidating at first but Sarah assured both Reem and I that we would be more comfortable and at ease around the animals over time. After a few days of handling them, I performed a Von Frey test on the first group of mice and taught Reem how to do it on the second group of mice. After surgery performed by Sarah, I performed a second Von Frey test on the same group of mice to see whether or not their pain threshold changed after surgery. After Von Frey testing, we condition the mice for 8 days alternating drugs every other day. On Monday I am going to watch Sarah perform surgeries on the second group of mice and continue conditioning on the first group. Reem only came in a week ago and it was nice to have someone to work with throughout my time here. I usually handle the mice myself so it was nice to have someone to talk to while working and the job gets done a lot quicker. It's also quite scary to go down to the vivarium alone especially because the room where my lab's mice is in is in a reversed day and night schedule so it's completely dark and it scared me the first time I was in there myself. (I would post some pictures but we aren't allowed to take pictures of the animals)
When I'm not busy with the mice, Sarah has also been showing me how to analyze data from the CPP and Von Frey tests. Chris, an undergrad student also showed me the Western Blot process and I did a part of it myself earlier last week. After three weeks, it feels good to be comfortable in the lab and knowing everyone who works here. I also got my picture taken for my ID that gives me access to the vivarium and I got fitted for a lab coat with my name on it that made it more "official." I also met Danny last week and he was trying to teach me how to play Pokemon.
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| Danny and a pokemon |
Now that I'm finally settling into my routine and work in the lab, it's hard to believe I'm halfway through my time here.
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