Welcome to the week 7 blog post everyone! This week Dr. von Dassow was gone for a conference and Monday was a bit of a struggle. I quickly found that I can’t take 15 minutes to get a needle loaded if I want to get a plate of embryos injected before they get too hard! However, by Tuesday I had figured out how to time everything. I also got a lot faster at doing everything which helped a lot! I spent this week collecting data and trying to learn everything I can by watching the embryos. This Thursday yielded some exciting results for me. I think I’ve found a way to successfully predict where the smaller cell will divide from. Before the embryo divides a layer of something containing the utrophin probe sweeps across the surface of the embryo. What I’ve found from taking and watching videos is that the last spot to be covered by this “hood” will most likely be directly opposite where the smaller cell will be. So, by using a utrophin probe and an EB1 probe that tracks the tips of microtubules, I was able to get a couple of videos showing the cleavage furrow in one day. So instead of getting 10 videos with only 1 or 2 showing the cleavage furrow, I got 2 out of 2 videos showing the cleavage furrow. I have attached the first video that I got on Thursday below so you can look at it. I was extremely excited when I was watching it! If I’m right about the importance of the hood than it will be much easier to find embryos in the correct orientation to film. However, right now the only way I can see the hood and tell which way it is moving is by taking about 3 minutes of video. This works well if the second or third embryo I look at is oriented the right way, but I only have a certain amount of time between when the hood starts forming and when the cell divides. So, I only have time to check a few embryos before they start dividing. I’ll work on testing this idea and hopefully I won’t be getting any more videos that are looking at the back of a dividing embryo! On Wednesday I got to watch two interesting presentations. The first was a defense of a marine biology honors thesis by Alexander Hethman. I’ve never watched a defense of a project before and the topic was interesting. Alexander knew a lot his topic and I really enjoyed getting to hear his defense. We also had Dr. James McClintock speak for our seminar. Dr. McClintock has been doing research in Antarctica and told us about the effects of climate change on Antarctica. He has personally observed changes in Antarctica and showed diagrams of the receding ice sheets and glaciers. He also had some funny stories to tell about his time in Antarctica and as he spoke to others about climate change. On Saturday we will be spending a few hours in the CMLC tell the people who visit the museum about our projects. It should be a lot of fun.
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AuthorHi! My name is Sadie and I just graduated from Central Oregon Community College in Bend Oregon. I am working in Dr. von Dassow’s lab and I am excited to learn about research and cells. Archives
August 2019
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