Update
It’s about time that I update everyone on my recent work! These past few weeks, I have been repeating several experiments in which I study the effects of TGF-b on specific cells through various assays. These assays have the ability to quantitate TGF-b’s effects on cellular proliferation and migration. I am working with lentivirus-infected 4T1 cells, which means that the cells have been infected with a retrovirus carrying a vector plasmid of genetic material. In this case, when the plasmid is transcribed in the host 4T1 cell it yields a strand of RNA that subsequently folds into short hairpin RNA (shRNA). This shRNA, through a process known as RNA interference (RNAi) has the ability to knock down a designated protein in the cell by binding and degrading the mRNA segment coding for the protein and therefore preventing its translation. By knocking down specific proteins in the cell through this method, one is able to understand the roles of certain proteins in a cell. If, for example, a cell knocked down for a specific protein ceases to migrate compared to a control, it can be proposed that the knocked down protein is required for migration. For my experiments, I am attempting to elucidate the roles of certain proteins involved in the TGF-b signaling pathway and more specifically the pathway that is involved in promoting cellular migration, a key precursor to metastasis in cancer cells.
Thus far, despite about six weeks of nearly fifty hour work weeks, I find myself just as enthusiastic about science as when I started. I enjoy the infinite amount of unanswered questions that encapsulate science and the freedom, as a scientist, to attempt to answer them. Each experiment, even when it answers its intended question, opens up an entirely novel area for exploration. Interested in pursuing similar work as a career, these facts are encouraging – not only does it seem that I will always love what I am doing, but I should also always have something to do!