Author: alekhp606

After we arrived and did some work on our presentations for Thursday, Dr. Pandi showed us the analytical program he uses to check the drug concentrations in the patient samples. The program uses the results from each patient from the LCMS machine and categorizes them by each of the 60 drugs tested. Dr. Pandi then went through and checked the peaks graphed by the program for every patient, afterwards moving on to the next drug. After showing us the data points to consider and going through the first 15-20 drugs, he let us each analyze ~10 drugs each. We had to make sure each patient sample matched the standard sample, as well as the retention time and relative intensity, that way each positive, negative, and false positive could be identified at a rapid rate.

After reviewing our research PowerPoints with Dr. Pandi, he took us to the ritualx shop and introduced us to Emma, an NC State student working in the store today. She showed us the 20 different formulas and their categories (CO2, Terpene, etc.) as well as the process with which they prescribe different formulas. They use a series of personal questions about the customer and their pain to determine what formula (or balm) would best serve the customer’s needs. They also have a section of the store dedicated to pet Cannibidiol products, where they show the relationship between the weight of your pet and the amount of product they should take (e.g. 10 pounds –> 1/4 dropper of formula).

After working with Dr. Sean in the CBD flower lab, we returned to our work area to eat lunch and work on our research presentations for Dr. Pandi. He gave us feedback on our presentations and shared resources with which to add to our research presentations, namely a website containing international patents that we could use. We searched through the patents related to our topics and collected relevant and recent abstracts, along with their respective patent titles. These patents will serve to fill out our presentations further and give us better understandings of the importance and applications of our topics.

Inside the Toxicology Lab, we learned the basics of pipetting with one of the lab techs, Adam, who processes the urine samples there. We got to replicate his Standard Operating Procedure to produce a fake tray of urine samples to be processed. We started by pipetting water (simulating the samples) into each well of the 96 well plate. Then, we added fake enzymes and ACN. In addition, we got to practice pipetting methanol since it has a more complicated pipetting procedure as it is a volatile liquid. Moreover, we used an 8-tip pipette to speed up production of our samples. Overall, we all got to use the pipettes and understand the series needed to complete urine analysis.