I have thoroughly enjoyed my summer working at Duke. I will be working in the lab in the fall so I will possibly continue blogging and give you more details about my work study experience. I recommend the Howard Hughes to any high school students who would like to get more insight into the world of research. If you have any questions about the program or BME feel free to contact me. Well I must go now and pack for my vacation…
ciao for now,
Racquel
After working in the Truskey lab for six weeks, I have come to realize that I am almost positive that biomedical research is the field in which I would like to make a career. I am intrigued by the remarkable progress and potential of the field and I am excited to see where my work in the lab will take me. I am hoping to work in the lab during the school year as part of a work study or if not just continue my work for personal interest.
I came to my career decision a while back but it was partially solidified by my boss sending me home early one afternoon. Besides being excited that I had a short break before my afternoon seminar– did I mention that I love how flexible research’s hours are… except for waiting on cells to grow… I would like to do a study on how many people have died waiting on a cell to multiply… it’s uncanny how they rule our entire lives… literally… but again I digress… As I was saying, I was excited to go home but I was released because a Western Blot which Steve attempted did not work. For me, I would get frustrated and probably try to attempt it again after trying to figure out what went wrong. I always realized but would never admit how little control I actually have over the experiments I conduct. If a concentration is off, a cell dies, media gets contaminated or if a whole number of things happen, my experiment and results could be permanently compromised or damaged. Steve realized the unsuccessful trial and decided to attempt something else. He was able to step away from the experiment without being dismayed and realized that he would just do it again later… no worries…
I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in the lab thus far and with two weeks left I hope to figure out what exactly I would like to do with my interests in the future. Until then I continue to do my best in the lab and work hard with a ‘new problem free, philosophy’.
Racquel;)
Still waiting on my experiments to work out… the cells grow when they want to and and at a very slow rate. I did complete a flow cytometry on some of my cells and send them to a lab for results and I will report those back as soon as I can.
Racquel
