Hi everyone!
I just wrapped up my first week as an intern at the Nerretti lab in the Department of Biology at Brown. The first day was all about orientation, getting familiar with the lab space, and understanding the broader goals of the project.
The lab focuses on the processes of senescence from their markers and pathways to their greater effect on the body through aging and buildup. The first project I have begun is working with LF1 cells (human fetal lung) and inducing primary senescence by introducing small amounts of drugs so we can introduce those further to the cell culture to analyze secondary senescence through paracrine and juxtacrine pathways. We are also running several computational projects to analyze data previously collected
This week, I spent most of my time working on running data cleaning code. One of the biggest challenges I ran into was running code in a language I was less familiar with, troubleshooting inconsistent results, and learning a new software. Most of my time was spent coding, but I also got a lot of wet lab practice watching as we meticulously fed the cell culture, ran calculations to get ratios of chemicals right, and carefully examined the cells under precise microscopes.
With some guidance from my mentor, Anthony, I was able to better understand data analysis through coding. It was a small success, but I was able to run the three programs I created this week. It gave me a deeper appreciation for how much problem-solving and patience go into day-to-day research. I learned a lot this week and began the practices of proper lab notebook documentation, reading and annotating primary research articles, and asking better and more specific questions during check-ins
Next week, I’ll begin introducing half of our LF1 cells that are still reproducing to the cells that we induced senescence in this week.
Additionally, this week outside of the lab, I spent time with my roommates meeting their friends, touring campus and the surrounding areas, playing volleyball in the park, and going to pilates and yoga.
If you’re an intern or have experience in the lab, I’d love to hear your tips for staying organized and getting the most out of each day.
Here are a few photos of my walk from campus to work and an example of a bit of code I ran in the office
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