Day 4

Day4- Wilmington and Wrightsville

Day Four was super exciting because I got to work with the travel and vacation teams. Some of the ads that we see everyday on Tv, the ones for NC beaches, Wilmington, and even Moe’s are created by this team. Today I started off by meeting the entire team and then i got to work creating social media reports for all of their clients. It was my job to track the traffic on twitter, instagram, and facebook. After that I grabbed lunch and got straight back to work. My next task was to write advertisement posts for the facebook pages of Wrightsville beach and Wilmington NC. I first had to find an instagram picture for both posts and then write a short description. By the time I left work that day the post was up! It was so exciting to see the responses that i received and all the positive reinforcement from strangers on the internet.

Day Four: Studies & Sustenance

Not much can be said for the fourth day of my Work Experience program! Ivan and I were tasked with visiting the State Library downtown, as we were both with lobbyists this past week. We visited the State library in order to research our upcoming visit at the North Carolina Department of Transportation on Monday, and we learned quite a few things. For example, the NCDOT was originally called the State Highway Commission when it was founded in 1915. Also, the budget is quite large: $4.7 billion each year! 48.5% of the budget is allocated to maintenance and construction. After our time at the library, Ivan and I grabbed a bite to eat. It was nice to catch up with him, as we had been in the same building all week yet we hadn’t really seen one another!

Day 4: Histopathology and Chemical Testing

For my fourth day at the National Toxicology Program, I continued to work with Dr. DeVito in the Predictive Toxicology and Screening Group. Early in the day, I attended a peer review session as an observer at the ten-headed microscope. The review consisted of a group of pathologists who gathered to make suggestions regarding the research of another pathologist. Reviews like this allow for research to be vetted and checked for accuracy before it is published, to avoid any controversial or misleading conclusions. The review session I attended was meant to confirm or reject diagnoses of cytoplasmic alterations, fibrosis, and bile duct hyperplasia in histopathology slides of rat livers exposed to different doses of dibutyl phthalate. Dibutyl phthalate is commonly found as a plasticizer in nail polish.

After looking at slides through the ten-headed microscope, without exactly knowing what I was looking for, I returned to my cubicle to begin reading about how to identify different lesions under a microscope. I learned that fibrosis appears as an increase in cell density at random areas, and hyperplasia appears an enlargement of the cells. Through my time at the ten-headed microscope, I have become accustomed to using the microscope and identifying key parts of the organ slices, such as the nucleus or cytoplasm of the cell.

Later, I joined Dr. DeVito in his office to discuss the numerous projects the Predictive Toxicology and Screening Group pursues. Dr. DeVito told me about the central challenge the National Toxicology Program Laboratory faces: testing thousands of chemicals efficiently and effectively. To combat this challenge, the group employs a variety of techniques. To group chemicals, Dr. DeVito and his lab use a logistical prediction model to determine the possible adverse effects a chemical may have on the body, so they know which areas they should focus their testing on. Their tests range from using donated human liver cells to stimulating cortex cells with electric charges. I also learned about some of the different animals used in the lab, such as infant zebrafish, to test for prenatal effects of the chemicals. Lastly, Dr. DeVito explained some of the research conducted in the Biomolecular Screening Branch, which uses robots and automation to screen thousands of chemicals at a time.

Finally, I observed an NIEHS fellow working with the spheroids Dr. DeVito and his lab created. She was testing the effects of six different chemicals, and three times per weeks she changes the growth medium and chemical doses in her wells using an automated pipette machine that can fill and mix the solutions in all 384 wells at once. I also learned about the constant threat of contamination in a lab, and the different safeguards used by the lab staff to prevent it.

SAS Day 4- GatherIQ

The day was different from all the other days at SAS. Today instead of all the CA students splitting up we all met at Building R to work with a product called GatherIQ. GatherIQ is a program that uses SAS analytics to produce rich information on issues around the world. The day started with a presentation of what we would be doing today. Basically, the presentation talked about how we were going to test the product because we will not have biased opinions and we have never worked with the product before. The goal was for SAS to get information on the usability of GatherIQ. I really enjoyed testing GatherIQ because I actually got to do something hands-on. It was also cool because I was testing a product that SAS is working to refine and make better. After testing we all went to lunch for a quick break. After lunch, we went to a meeting where we were put in groups and asked to brainstorm about potential changes that could be made to improve the GatherIQ product. After brainstorming we presented to some employees in the room and were filmed so that they could show their co-workers. Overall today was a wonderful day and I am looking forward to Monday where we are going to do some more hands-on stuff with some SAS products.

Day 4 – Final Day at IPS :(

To start off the day, Sean showed us how he prepared a sample of viscous, almost pure CBD oil (about 98% CBD and 2% THC) for analysis with the HPLC and tandem mass spectrometry. The THC percentage was higher than permissible by the state law; he diluted the sample by pipetting in isopropanol. Then, we shadowed Ashleigh as she set up samples of urine for confirmation testing with HPLC; she included small volumes of the samples, a clean control, and two samples containing all of the substances being tested for. After lunch, we helped Stephanie label bottles of hemp oil in Integrated Hemp Solutions and continued to shadow Sean and Ashleigh.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed being able to intern in such a relaxed yet intriguing environment; I’m grateful to have heard about the scientists’ personal experiences and seen some applications of the knowledge I gained in classes and clubs at school though learning about the lab and hemp aspects of the business.

Day 4- Chlorophyll and E Coli

I shadowed Jenny today and helped her vacuum filter chlorophyll out of water samples from Falls Lake. The process was the same as what I did on day two with total suspended solids (TSS), but it had to be done under a special green light. While she was filtering everything I wrote down the results and handed her the sample bottles.

(The 300+ stickers I cut yesterday were used in this process & I cut around 80 more today)

I also met their data manager, Carol, and she talked to me about how she runs the website and creates all the spreadsheets/graphs for their research projects. She uses a program called Surfer to make most of the graphs and her data sheets typically run between 15,000-60,000 rows (per graph). The data she collects comes from on site probes, and they currently have probes on Falls Lake and in High Point.

In the afternoon I watched Lisa work with cultivating e coli samples for one of the other people in the lab. Each week the lab cultivates another e coli dish and keeps it in a refrigerator so further tests can be done. The e coli is grown on some processed sheep blood which I found pretty cool. (It smelled horrible)

Image 1: Vacuum filter

Image 2: One of the Graphs Karen made

Image 3: Excel sheet for the graph

Image 4: E Coli sample

SAS Work Experience Day 4

On my fourth day, all of the Cary Academy students participating came together to learn about the GatherIQ app created by SAS, which incorporates both the humanitarian qualities of SAS and all of the data available to them. We got to test out the program on laptops and our phones, and filled out surveys giving feedback and suggestions. GatherIQ is a platform with information and data related to world issues, and the program encourages users to share their perspectives and thoughts on the data via social media, specifically Twitter, which is connected within the program. Below are some screenshots of one example of an article on the GatherIQ app:

After tinkering with the program in small groups and submitting our feedback, we all came together to brainstorm new possible ideas for the app. The target audience for the app is essentially anyone, but mostly is aimed towards middle schoolers and high schoolers as well as young adults. We were able to share our perspective on what tactics and features will resonate with young people. In small groups again, we used a series of guiding questions to gather ideas for GatherIQ, and then presented those to our hosts, who were very open to ideas and interested to hear what we had to say. Overall, this day was very interesting, and I can’t wait to see the next model of the GatherIQ app and how our feedback and ideas may have actually influenced its development!

And we all got to take home some fun GatherIQ merchandise, pictured above 🙂

Today I worked from my house again as he had things to do. I continued looking at the data to find outliers and correlations. I also looked up cut points in the medical industry. Basically, if your level is 30.0, you are fine but if it is 29.9 you’re in bad water even though there is only a small difference in bumber. I looked up this method and the pros and cons to it. I also tried to find other methods for determining ones degree of health in any particular category. There were few alternatives and this is a huge problem in the medical industry that needs to be fixed. I will continue my research into this next week.

Day 4 – Huff Ortho

Today was slightly different from the previous three days of the week. Since Dr. Huff does not go to the office or have any surgeries on Fridays, I did not go to the hospital today. Instead, I researched a number of cases that I had seen in the previous week from home. In my research, I looked into cases that I was curious about. Two of these cases were Osteochondritis dissecans and Stener Lesions.

Stener lesions, also known as “gamekeepers thumb”, originated from Scottish hunters who had developed thumb problems. Due to humanely dispatching their harvest, they would put pressure on their MCP joint. This would then cause stress to the ligament within that joint causing a tear. As a result, the ligament would then lay on top of the thumb bone and not within the joint. With the ligament attached to the bone further behind than needed, the thumb then would develop a sway away from the other fingers instead of remaining parallel with them. This sway is one of the biggest indicators of a Stener lesion for a doctor. In regards to treatment, there is virtually no way to fix a Stener lesion without surgery. During the surgery, the doctor would break the ligament away from the place at which it rested during the lesion. Then, the doctor would attach the ligament on the MCP joint where it would be anatomically correct.

Another case that I found particularly interesting this week was Osteochondritis Dissicans (OD). This case appears when there has been a trauma lesion to the knee joint. When the lesion forms, a portion of the bone within the knee socket, whether it be the tibia or femur, breaks loose due to pressure. This broken part of the bone then rests inside of the joint until surgery. As a result, the patient is then under a tremendous amount of pain since there is loose bone inside of their knee joint, and there is also an area of exposed bone without cartilage around it. Osteochondritis Dissicans is actually fairly rare, and it mainly affects adolescents because they are more prone to having growing pains rather than adults. In regards to treatment, surgery is the main option. During the week, I had the opportunity to witness a surgery in order to fix the OD. The main goal of the surgery was to locate the missing piece of bone tissue and then place it back onto the lesion using darts. These darts were made of plastic and had barbs on them so that they would stay in place after the surgery during the healing process. However, the surgery is much more difficult than it sounds. With a great deal of perseverance, Dr. Huff located the piece of bone and took it out of the knee through a small incision. To compensate for the missing piece of bone, he then drilled holes into the lesion. These holes went all the way to the bone marrow. The result of the bone marrow cells entering the lesion is that new bone would then form around the lesion to recreate the bone.

Overall, I had a great week with Dr. Huff, and I can’t wait for next week!

Day Four – Exciting Results!

Today I felt much more comfortable and at ease. I no longer got lost when walking down the seemingly identical hallways to get to the Griffith Lab. I also ran into one of the other women who works in the same room as Dr. Bermek as I was walking in. She was really nice, and we had a short conversation as we were walking to the lab. It was a nice way to start the day. What I really like is all the other people working alongside Dr. Bermek are women. There is a great atmosphere in a place I thought would be strictly business. All the women I am surrounded by are extremely smart with many degrees. They all help each other out when they have questions about a protocol or need to borrow a pipette or gel lid. They also are always joking around with each other which I found really entertaining and funny. Once I walked in, Dr. Bermek and I, like every morning, made a plan for the day. I had a made a table of the amounts of supercoiled and relaxed DNA I counted on the EM on Tuesday. We took a look at the table and began calculating percentages of supercoiled vs relaxed DNA from the plain DNA sample, the UL8 sample, and the UL8 + CIP sample. I had a little bit of a hard time with the math at first but I caught on quickly. Once we finished calculating the percentages, we compared our results to the gel we had run the day before. The EM percentages were a good indicator of how the protein and CIP acted, but we also ran a gel because a lot of my counting and categorizing was personal based on which category I though the DNA would fall into. The results from the EM and the gel were pretty similar which was nice to see that I had counted somewhat correctly.

After we finished calculating the percentages of supercoiled vs. relaxed DNA, we checked on the agarose gel we had set up yesterday afternoon since it had finished being run and stained. The gel we ran was similar to another gel Dr. Bermek had already run, but she wanted more distinct bands, and on this gel, we tested time and concentration. Dr. Bermek thoroughly washed the gel with water because she knew she potentially wanted to use this gel for her paper, so she was very careful. Once Dr. Bermek saw the gel image she was jumping up and down with elation. She said it was one of the prettiest gels she had ever seen. The bands were really distinct which is exactly what she wanted. We were debating on whether to use a 0.6%, 0.8%, 0.9% or 1% gel, and we ended up settling on a 1% gel because of other protocols we had read online and it paid off. I, with a little bit of help from Dr. Bermek, made the gel that worked so well, so I was super excited. She told me “I need you here more often” which was a wonderful thing to hear. Dr. Bermek did not enjoy making agarose gels very much. When she showed the gel to one of the head guys in the lab, he also reiterated how nice the gel looked. Seeing the gel turn out so nicely made both Dr. Bermek’s and my day. We sat down and analyzed the gel. The basic conclusion we came too after a long conversation was the DNA began to relax with 75nM of the UL8 protein. With the reaction time gel we saw the protein began relaxing the DNA within only 15 seconds and the DNA became super relaxed in only two minutes.

After we finished analyzing the gel, we began to set up the next experiment. We were testing a drug used for the herpes simplex virus to see how it worked with the topoisomerase experiments we had been doing the past couple of days. Setting up the different amounts of each ingredient for the experiment required many calculations. I was nervous about all the math and didn’t fully catch onto everything. Each ingredient needed to be diluted which took at least 45 minutes to make all the dilutions. I helped Dr. Bermek with a couple of the dilutions, but she physically added all the ingredients into each tube. There were so many steps she let me sit down for a while and just watch her because of the complexity of the protocol. I am also much slower at pipetting than she is. Once she finished adding all the ingredients to the tubes, we had to wait awhile to incubate the samples. Dr. Bermek and I talked for a little while before it was time for me to go while we were waiting. It seemed like a little bit more of a relaxed day, but I still learned so much. It’s crazy how much knowledge I have obtained in just four days because I am immersed in each experiment. To me, working in a lab and learning about science is sort of like learning a foreign language. You have to immerse yourself and make mistakes in order to improve. I’m excited to rest up this weekend and recharge for another fun week!

The beautiful 1% gel I helped make being stained.

The wonderful results of the Agarose gel with very distinct bands.