Here’s a recap of what’s happened so far. I am Lily Vogel and I am spending my pinhead internship in San Diego, California at the Ye Lab at Scripps Research Insitute learning about neurobiology. I am working under Yu Wang with her two undergrad interns: Saba and Verinia.

On Monday I was given a bunch of reading material and read all day after the meeting from 9:30 – 11:00 and lunch. Every Monday the Ye Lab orders food from Uber Eats or Door Dash and pays for the whole group. This week we got Thai, and I ordered spring rolls. Then I read about the organization of the nervous system, neurons, communication between neurons, and Dorsal Root Ganglias (DRGs).

Pancakes from Saba’s Birthday

DRGs in OCT

On Tuesday Yu, Vernia, Yunxiao Zhang (the man who showed me the mice ultrasounds last week), Saba, and I went out to brunch at 9:00 am at Caroline’s Cafe to celebrate Saba’s 20th birthday. I ordered buttermilk pancakes and chai. I am super grateful for the invitation and had an amazing time. When we got back to the lab I got to watch Vernia, Saba, and Yu work together to euthanize and dissect mice, extract DRGs, place them into OTC (a thick liquid that protects the tissue from the harsh thermal changes that’s used in cryosectioning), and then freeze them. There were four DRGs in each cube (the little white specs in the image). After I did some more reading I then helped Saba place 16 mice spines into OCT and froze those as well. Afterward, I went and watched Saba slice the DRGs that were taken out earlier using the cryostat. They were cut into 15 μm (micrometers) which is extremely thin.

Mouse Spine in OCT

Cryostat

On Wednesday all I did really was read about plasmids, bacterial facts, the bacterial growth curve, transformation and competence, inoculating a liquid bacterial culture, plasmid preparation, and RNAscope all day. An hour before I left though I was able to help Saba start the staining process on the spines that we worked on on Tuesday. Saba had already cryosectioned them and put them on slides.

Slides Done with the First Step of Staining and Ready to be Incubated Overnight

Sliced Spines on a Slide

Thursday was a super slow day and I wasn’t given anything to do until around 4:30 pm. Saba had asked me to use a clear nail polish top coat to seal the slides that she had finished staining. It was pretty cool because I actually love painting and doing nails and Saba was shocked at how steady of a hand I had. Usually,   it is really easy to mess that part up, but I did a great job. After I did that I was able to watch Natalie (one of the Pinterns I am working with) perfuse two mice and take out their brains!

Finished Stained Slides, Ready to be Imaged

On Friday I ended on a great note. First Saba, Veriana, and I had to spin out some bacteria and freeze it, but after that, they decided to give me a tour of UCSD! I saw all of the main attractions like the library, the bear made out of stone, and the Fallen Star. They also took me to the bookstore and bought me a bumper sticker for my car so when I go home I have a souvenir. I am really going to miss them when I leave, although they don’t have much time to take on an intern when they did teach me they did an amazing job and made me feel like family. Thank you, guys! When we got back we took the frozen bacteria and purified it, taking out the plasmas. This process lasted until the end of the day. After my roommates got back from work we went out to the beach and had a night swim.

Bacteria Being Filtered

UCSD Bear

On Saturday we went back to Whispering Sands Beach, but there was so much seaweed and the weather was gloomy so we only stayed for an hour and a half. Around 6:00 pm Giada (a Pintern I live with) and I went out on a ride. I was on my Oneweel and she was riding a bike. We went through the beautiful neighborhood that we live in and jammed to music. When we got back all my roommates and I went out to Chick-fil-A and went back to the beach for the sunset and another night swim. What a great week!

Giada and I after our night swim.