I am Lily Vogel, and I’m spending my summer in San Diego, California at Scripps Research Institute studying neurobiology. I have have been given an amazing opportunity to study under Yu Wang and with her two undergrad students: Saba Heydari-Seradj and Verina Leung. There are two other Pinhead interns working here, but they’re not working directly with me.
So far I have just been doing bookwork and notes to fully prepare for my internship. Although it is hard to see the other two Pinterns already getting hands-on experience I know my mentor has a thought-out plan and reasoning for why I am doing what I am doing. On Monday after I was done with my bookwork around four o’clock Saba showed me around the lab and we were able to talk about were she was from and I was able to tell her about my background as well. On Tuesday Yu was working on her own project while I was doing more research. On Wednesday I was able to explain that my main goal was to learn more about ultrasound and anatomy so Yu was able to schedule me a half-day with Yunxiao Zhang to show me ultrasounds on pregnant mice next Tuesday. I was also able to read more
on neurobiology and saw this neat phenomenon: no matter how great or little pressure is placed on your nerves it will send the same monotone shock to alert your brain, but as the pressure increases so does the the frequencies of the shocks.
I actually only worked those three days this week because Yu Wang had to travel out of state Wednesday evening plus Verina and Saba had finals and couldn’t make it into the lab any other days. So, instead on Thursday I took my Onewheel nine miles out to the beach and was able to swim in the ocean and lay out on the sand for a while. Afterward I headed those same nine miles back home. Then on Friday when my roommates got back we decided to make breakfast for dinner and have a movie night. On Saturday all of the other Pinterns I am staying with and I decided to go out to the same beach I went to on Thursday and just relax. We went to a burger joint, around to shops, and had ice-cream. Overall I think we gained a better connection with each other and had a wonderful, well-disserved chill day.
Next week I am hoping to get hands-on experience, learn about High Frequency Ultrasound on mice, and learn more about the projects I will be doing for the next five weeks.
Lily, wow! This sounds incredible, I had no idea that nerves functioned like that. The beach you went to looks beautiful as well! I can’t wait to read about your hands-on experiences next week!
Great talking Lily! Love these updates what an experience!