20 Days, 90 Degrees, Blue Hands, And Feeling Just A Little Bit Lost

For the past 4 or 5 years of my life, August would roll around and I would find myself lamenting over the lost summer--always complaining that I did absolutely nothing those 10 weeks (which was true). Last year, I changed that by spending about 1 month of my summer in camps (which were absolutely amazing). But this year was even crazier. I had some online courses, UGA Grady journalism camp, 21st CL camp at Georgia Southern, and the wonderful Camp TEAM.


But even more interesting than those plans is the last thing I did this summer: an internship with Emory University's Cardiothoracic Research Laboratory across from the Midtown hospital. This was such a phenomenal experience, partially because it is something that I never expected. Most science/lab related internships require you to be 16 years old for liability reasons, but I got lucky here as I am not too young for molecular work. 


Basically, the lab I worked with is doing research on the diabetic heart and hydrogen sulfide (yes, that substance that smells like rotten eggs) as protection for the heart during a heart attack (myocardial ischemia). They do surgeries on mice (it is completely legal and humane) and then take samples from the heart tissue to test for certain proteins and their activity. These different proteins cause specific expressions and can show how effective the treatment is. For example, one protein (cleaved caspase-3) is very involved in the apoptotic cell (a cell that's about to die) and so higher concentrations of CC3 would show that more cells are dying. This is an extremely simple and short explanation for a very small bit of the work they are doing here.


In my weeks here I was actually able to get involved. I ran a lot of Western Blots (a 2-day procedure that ends up showing you the concentrations of proteins), protein assays, and analyzed the data that I collected. But the majority of the time, I was absolutely terrified--whenever I worked in the lab alone, I wouldn't be able to fall asleep that night because I'd be thinking about all the possible mistakes I made or things I might have left out. What I was doing was actually going to be part of their study and a part of their results. Of course, the same proteins are tested for a multitude of times for reliability and validity, but one test could still affect to results. Yeah, no pressure or anything. But all in all I'd say it's been a very productive and successful time. 


There is just so much information here, it was difficult to keep up. I had to keep reminding myself that I am in high school and the people trying to explain everything to me are college graduates and PhDs. I know I won't remember everything I learned here--there were just so many minor complexities and details about things I had never heard of--but I am sure that if I ever revisit this topic, I will recognize parts of it. I have my little notepad with all my notes on the background and purpose of the study and procedures and extra specific notes for the different tests I ran, and I can see myself going through and reading it multiple times.


So basically, I've had a pretty amazing summer. Completely exhausting, crazy, and eventful but wonderful nonetheless. (Oh to explain the title: our office and lab basically have no AC, they said it gets stuck on 90F or something. And the other day I was Coomassie staining a membrane and it turned my hands blue. Sorry that was not as entertaining as I hoped! And random side note, I got to wear scrubs and lab coats. Pretty awesome). Today is my last day here at Emory CTRL and I think I will probably miss working here (with such an interesting bunch of people). I am super grateful for this opportunity I was given, and I am sure it will benefit me in the near future.


Have any interesting summer stories to share? I'd love to hear them :] Post a comment!