Hello, my name is Katie Pumayalli, and I just finished the last week of my six-week internship at the Ye Lab at Scripps Institute in San Diego, California. I can’t believe my internship is already over. I’ve had the pleasure of working with my amazing mentors, Cailynn Wang and Zhengyuan (Ben) Pang. Since starting my mentorship on Monday, June 17th, I’ve fallen in love with the lab and everyone in it. My mentors’ research focuses on using a technique called clearing-assisted tissue click chemistry (CATCH) to track hallucinogenic drugs within brain tissue. CATCH involves making brain tissue slices transparent by removing lipids (fats) from the cells while preserving the overall cellular structure. This technique enables precise visualization of where drugs bind within the brain. This week, I was able to harvest 70 organs and follow the protocol to process and prepare them for imaging.
70 organs in tubes based on drugs
Mouse injections
My week kicked off on Tuesday, which turned out to be one of my favorite days of the entire internship. I began by checking on a brain I harvested two weeks prior. Next, I injected five mice with a serum used for control groups (vehicle mice). While I aimed to inject six, I successfully completed five. After an early lunch, my mentor taught me how to harvest a mouse’s kidneys, liver, heart, lungs, and spleen. I then independently harvested organs from fourteen of the fifteen remaining mice. To wrap up the day, I cleaned up the workspace and transferred all the organs to a cold room for this week’s experiments.
Harvesting Organs
Siena and I at the Intern Event
On Wednesday, I began by cleaning the mice lungs harvested the previous day. Afterward, I processed the livers for slicing. The lab enjoyed a catered lunch to celebrate Ian, Enya (a PhD student leaving the lab), and my time at the Ye Lab. After lunch and allowing the gel to solidify, I sliced the liver tissue in preparation for antibody staining.
I began my Thursday by continuing to remove blood clots from the lungs. Perfusion effectively clears blood from the brain, liver, and lower intestines, but additional cleaning is necessary for the lungs. For lunch, I attended a Scripps-hosted intern event, networking with interns from all six departments. After the event, I prepared A1P4 buffers for an overnight tissue reaction.
Failed gell attempt
I began my Friday by degassing liver samples prepared on Thursday and embedding them in a gel for vibratome slicing. Unfortunately, an incorrect chemical-to-water ratio prevented the gel from solidifying. I remade the gel successfully, but this delay meant the liver samples couldn’t be sliced on Friday. After this gel-related setback, my mentors treated me and some labmates to lunch. Finally, I said my goodbyes and left for the last time.
My last weekend in San Diego was wonderfully relaxing. On Saturday, Siena and I visited the Old Point Loma Lighthouse and spent some time exploring Del Mar. To cap off the weekend, our host family treated us to brunch on Sunday.
These past six weeks have flown by! I want to express my sincere gratitude to Sarah and Pinhead for this incredible opportunity. I’d also like to thank my host family and Siena for making San Diego feel like a home away from home. Lastly, I want to thank my mentors for their trust and for allowing me to conduct various experiments. Goodbye, and thank you for reading!
Sincerely,
Katie Pumayalli
Lunch on Friday with my mentors and Lab Mates
There are no comments published yet.