Data analysis on cells using FIGI software
Nitrogen Tank to keep cells
Mirtle the Turtle at New England Aquarium
My second week at the Ting Wu Lab in Boston consisted mostly of data analysis. It’s fun to take pictures on the microscope, but anyone can do that, the real science begins when you have to interpret the pictures. At first, this data analysis was tricky. I had to learn a brand new software, make some tough calls on different cells, and then, once I got all the data from the computer, I had to figure out how to graph the data so that we could see it in a way that was meaningful. Since a lot of the things I had to use were new to me, this data analysis was very hard at first, but I quickly got the hang of it and was able to get information out of pictures faster and faster. By the end of the week, I had made a bunch of graphs that my mentors, Kiera, and I were able to look through and see what stage of the cell cycle each cell was in. Besides data analysis, there were other tasks in the lab I got to help with that were also super interesting. One day, I was able to help and follow Meira, our lab manager, as she did Mycoplasma testing on some of the scientists’ new cell lines. Mycoplasma are bacteria that can infect cells and mess with future experiments. To test cells for Mycoplasma, we had to make a primer for all the samples, run them through a PCR, and then run this DNA through a gel to see if any of the cells were infected. Fortunately, none of them were, but the whole process of testing was really interesting, and I feel lucky to have been a part of it. On Juneteenth, I had the day off, so I decided to go check out the Boston Common and Boston Public Garden. The garden and Common were both very beautiful, with lots of plants and trees. It was really just a nice green space, but it was nice to see some nature, which seems to be less abundant here than back home in Colorado. On the weekend, I decided to go to the aquarium. This aquarium was one of the biggest I’ve been in, and it was really cool. They had all sorts of fish, penguins, and seals, but the best part was a massive turtle named Myrtle who was over 500 lbs. Boston is a great city to explore because it has excellent public transportation, so I look forward to being able to explore more next week.
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