Week 10:
Advancing microscopy skills, participating in clinical research, and a busy weekend.

August 4, 2019

Most of my time this week in the lab was spent in the microscopy room. There, I learned steps to operate the fluorescent microscope more effectively and precisely. These included positioning the microscope slides with tissue sections that I cryosectioned under the objectives, picking the right filters to see fluorochromes in the tissue sections that I immunostained, and how to use the camera attached to the microscope with the computer program to see images of the tissue sections on the monitor. Then, I learned how to focus the tissue sections to capture the best images possible. This was a fun experience learning how to operate such a delicate and seemingly complex scientific device. It made me feel like a real scientist. While in the microscopy room, Mr. Arends, Mr. Sozio, and I, took the images I captured and arranged them into a montage that I will be posting to this week’s blog. We also created a montage of images that they will then send off to the collaborators on the study at the University of Pittsburgh.

Later in the week, Mr. Arends taught a Palmer R15 Research Honors chiropractic student and I how to operate the computer program with the fluorescent microscope and camera to quantify the number of immunopositively stained cells in specific areas of the captured images. First, we used a function in the program that allowed us to draw an outline around regions of interest in the images. Example of what this looks like will be included as a picture montage. Once drawn, the program counted all the positive cells within that region of interest. Then, he showed us how to export that data into a spreadsheet so that it can be compared to other data from the study. We were also taught how to name the images with the regions of interest and save them so that we could keep track of the sections and microscope slides. It has been fun to develop my histology and microscopy skills. I hope that I will get the chance to work with the microscope a little more before I leave.

Outside of the lab, I had the privilege of working with the clinical research team. I was given another opportunity to be a participant, to help them practice their ultrasound image capturing and stabilization skills. I also participated in a simulation of one the phases of their study to help them practice their methods. During the simulation I learned about the extent clinical researchers must go to make sure participants are informed about all aspects of a study and understand how their data is kept private. It was a good learning experience because I did not know that privacy laws and informed consent was taken into such high consideration in clinical research. After the simulation was over, I was able to provide feedback and talk to the clinical research team about things that could possibly be improved from a simulated subjects standpoint. I like having the opportunity, and I know I have stated this before, to give feedback on a legitimate scientific study, it gives me some validation that my pursuit of education is worthwhile.

This week, I spent a couple hours each day working on my internship final assignment PowerPoint presentation and internship analysis, my fellowship PowerPoint presentation, and my chiropractic school application statement. I have been working on my final assignment presentation for almost the whole summer, so I think I have finally gotten to a place where it is acceptable to submit. In addition to my final assignment presentation, I finished my internship analysis. In the analysis I reflect on my internship experience. I plan on sending that to my mentors for feedback soon. I think that the presentation I will present at the fellowship showcase, is finished. I am going to send it to my fellowship advisor to get feedback. I also drafted some new paragraphs for my chiropractic school application statement. I plan to send those to my clinical research mentor, Dr. Robert Vining, to receive feedback and an idea of how to incorporate them.

To round out the week, my primary mentor Dr. Stephen Onifer, took the basic science team and I to lunch at a local restaurant called Zeke’s Island Cafe. The place had a relaxed tone that I enjoyed and the food, a play on Caribbean and Pacific cuisine, was good too. We had some good conversations about the local agriculture and how farms are coming back after the devastating floods. I also explained how the one course at a time program works and how our cafeteria system, Bon Appetit, works as well.

Next week, I will be a monitor at Palmer College of Chiropractic Homecoming Continuing Education events. This week, I completed monitor training. I also will be able to attend Continuing Education events. There are several sessions that I am excited about because they will give me an even greater insight into the chiropractic profession.

This weekend was busy to say the least. On Saturday, I went to Palmer’s recreation center to complete my tempo run and second lift for the week. Then I went to the hardware store to pick up some new belt for a belt sander, a dust mask, and some knee guards. My hosts basement floor was taken up, but not all of the floor adhesive came off with the floor, so they paid me to attempt to remove the rest with a belt sander. Let’s just say it did not go as planned. The sander method worked, kind of, I was not able to find right angle on the sander to sand the floor properly, so it was a very long process. After three hours of only getting about 15% of the floor done, I decided to stop because I knew there had to be a better and more efficient way to remove the excess adhesive. I spent the rest of my day binge watching Netflix and taking it easy.

On Sunday, I woke up early, responded to some emails, edited my blog post a little bit, and cooked food for the rest of the week. Later in the day, around three in the afternoon, I went for my weekly long run. With a temperature or 95 degrees, zero cloud cover, and barely any wind, it was probably one of the worst long runs I have ever experienced. From now on I will always do my long runs in the early morning before the temp gets too high. The experience made for some good heat training, but it was an experience that I would have rather not had. On top of the weather being so bad, my left shoe was pressing up against my arch the entire time, which made for a very uncomfortable running experience. I will be returning those shoes soon. I was beat after my run, so the rest of the day I laid around and watched Netflix.