Henry Benasutti
My name is Henry Benasutti, and I am a student at Ridgway Secondary School.
Slides I stained and slip covered with my mentor.
I’ll be doing cancer research during my Pinhead Internship, and I’ve been placed at NorthShore University HealthSystem, a teaching affiliate of the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. During my first week I have been an observer of many different processes, and I have been slowly building my knowledge on the biology of cancer while my mentor and some other co-workers have been deciding what a good project for me would be.
While observing I was able to also participate in some of the processes. I stained slides, which is dying the specimen on the slide so that they can be seen under a microscope (before they are stained they are clear so you cannot see what you need to see). After staining the slides I cover slipped them, which is gluing a very thin piece of glass over the specimen so the specimen is protected and can be stored properly.
Cassettes with specimen for slides.
I also helped with cell culture, which is growing cells in an artificial environment. You have to check them regularly with a microscope to make sure they are not overpopulating the container and to make sure they are not all dead.
Me using a pipette to put new medium in the cell culture dish.
Another thing that I did with cell culture was feed the cells. First I had to mix the medium (food) with different nutrients and vitamins so that the cells get everything they need.
I got to use a pipette, which is used for measuring and moving very small amounts of liquid.
Cell culture dishes are stored inside an incubator at 37 degrees Celsius.
It has been a good week and I am excited to start on my own project.
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