Ah summer. While it is nice to be back in Cincinnati, and in my very own apartment, I have to say that I was not ready to start classes! Thankfully, I have been able to get a part-time volunteer/internship position in the Pixley lab on the UC Medical Campus. This summer I am hoping to gain real-world experience seeing what life is like as a medical researcher - that's what this honors experience is all about! Fantastic work is being done, finding the role of magnesium in neural conduits and regrowth, and finding ways to use magnesium to stimulate recovery. I hope to be able to partake in some of the research being done!
I started working at the lab last week, and at first it was not the glamorous job I envisioned; I wasn't looking at slides, seeing the remarkable changes in the cells, finding new discoveries - nope! Instead I created some graphs and placed over 2000 pipette tips into containers. Wow, talk about a boring start.
Thankfully, I didn't quit then. The next day I learned to stain tissue samples so that spies could be analyzed for tissue growth. That seemed much more exciting to me! I'm glad that I was able to finally learn a useful and practical lab technique, one that I will be able to use in the future, I am sure. It was also nice to do something with my hands, instead of clicking away on a computer. Here's to the rest of the summer!
I started working at the lab last week, and at first it was not the glamorous job I envisioned; I wasn't looking at slides, seeing the remarkable changes in the cells, finding new discoveries - nope! Instead I created some graphs and placed over 2000 pipette tips into containers. Wow, talk about a boring start.
Thankfully, I didn't quit then. The next day I learned to stain tissue samples so that spies could be analyzed for tissue growth. That seemed much more exciting to me! I'm glad that I was able to finally learn a useful and practical lab technique, one that I will be able to use in the future, I am sure. It was also nice to do something with my hands, instead of clicking away on a computer. Here's to the rest of the summer!