Halfway through our program, wow! As I'm writing this, I am monitoring barnacle embryos under a new drug treatment, which is Latrunculin. Latrunculin is another actin inhibitor but I’m still unsure about the effect it has in the cells because they are not behaving like they do with Cyt-B, nor having a consistent effect. I started treating bigger groups in dishes to raise them to their larvae stage and I’m waiting to see the results. I didn't consider all the things that can affect the cells when raising them like dehydration, bacteria, etc, so some of the treatments were purely experimental. The barnacles that I had this week weren't active enough and I ended up postponing a lot of my work because I`m pretty much dependent on their matings. To keep me busy, I checked sperm released under the microscope to see the form of the filaments. Luckily, Thursday I got new barnacles from the docks and I was able to set some time-lapses with their embryos. This week was kind of quiet and calm because all of my mentors were out of the city so Gina and I were working while listening to some music, practicing our presentations (they ended up being great), and decorating our lab with plants. Not being able to do my experiments effectively and all the waiting time between them made me feel as if I didn't progress much and that pushed my mental health down a bit. On to the fun side, the past weekend J`mie and I embarked on an unexpected adventure to North Bend where we ended up having great Chinese food and hanging around in a parking lot (that also didnt go as planned haha). For Victoria, Annika, Chloe, and I, weekends also mean movie nights. We watch our all-time favorites movies with snacks, and it's always a great time. I am really looking forward to this weekend as I haven't been feeling my best lately. I've been taking lots of walks to appreciate nature as it's very different from where I come from and that has helped clear my mind a lot. I know when things don`t go as planned we tend to get overwhelmed very easily, but a lesson that I learned this week is to, no matter what, try to take advantage of your surroundings and the opportunities in front of you. I love that in this program, I am learning how science really is. You can't always get successful results because for new discoveries to happen, there have to be failed attempts too, so I am not mad nor upset on how the week turned out. I am actually grateful because it allowed me to learn new lab techniques and improve the ones I already had. All I can tell you for now is I will keep trying my hardest and have fun in the process <3
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If you are wondering if I did anything fun during the past weekend, the answer is yes! Our REU mentor Richard took us on a wonderful boat trip in the Pacific Northwest waters. I've been on boat trips before but never to collect species from a 170ft deep. I met the decorator crabs, many types of brittle stars, some cute shrimps, and soft coral with baby anemones on them. The downside of it was that I got very seasick and my stomach was weak for a couple of days :( I've been making a lot of new UO friends and the vibe at the bonfires is always amazing. Watching the sunset at the beach after a really nice and productive week is always my favorite part. Week 4 public seminar with Dr. Jim Carlton on marine invasions and macroplastics has been my favorite seminar so far. He explained how the historical Japanese tsunami of 2011 lead to the migration of species all the way to the Oregon coast. On Friday the 15th we went tide-pooling with Nicole and Erin to Qovhyax island to visit a cave on a -0.5 low tide. I loved it! We had so much fun, felt a few times, and saw many types of marine species. My research is going well. I continue doing the same experiments describe last week and the results we are getting lead us to new questions like if peristalsis is delaying the meiosis II pattern. The ideal result would be for the cells to stay in a spherical shape after the treatment and to continue their contractions and normal development. This would show that peristalsis is actually shaping the egg. It would be cool to grow the spherical eggs to see if the shape has anything to do with the way organs develop. I feel very confident conducting research now under the guidance of my lab mentor George and Erin, and I'm motivated to keep making good progress to create an awesome poster. Talking about posters, we also had a fun workshop about making effective presentations which I'll be testing next week in our proposal presentation along with my public speaking abilities. Good afternoon everyone! As I was reflecting on this past week, I realized how much I've accomplished and how much is yet to come. I feel so grateful to be experiencing all these things, especially along with amazing people that inspire me to be better. Last weekend I did a lot of cool things that I have been wanting to do since I got here. I went to downtown Coos Bay for a nice walk and explore the museums with an unexpected but valuable company. We also made a trip to Sunset Bay beach with some UO friends and we finally got to check out Bastendrof beach too. The OIMB picnic for the 4th of July was so fun and I tried awesome local cooked oysters. One of my favorite parts of the week was the Wednesday lunch with a scientist where we met Dr. Aaron Galloway. Listening to him talk about his academic path gave me a new perspective of what I will like for my future. I still want to attend graduate school and pursue my research, but I dont feel pressure to follow a traditional path or to only focus on research. I am hoping this summer I`ll discover more about my scientific and life interests and how to achieve them. On Tuesday we started the experiments that I describe last week for my project and after a couple of trial and errors, I finally got an idea of how these peristaltic contractions work and what they affect. We treated different broods of embryos with 2 amounts of cytochalasin B for 5,10,15, and 20 min before washing them with filtered seawater. We find out that it only takes about 3 minutes for the drug to take effect and stop the wavy motion. Some cells recovered completely, going back to their divisions in meiosis II and others had an interesting development after where they stayed spherical with minor contractions. We are still looking to find a good protocol to wash the cells without killing them, time them and get effective results. My experiments are pretty dependent on barnacle matings as we have to dissect the egg sacs very carefully and hard to know exactly if the eggs are fertilized or not because of the internal fertilization they have. Today we didn't get many matings and I couldn't treat cells with the drug, so to stay productive I took care of the sand dollar larvae (from week 1) and they are doing pretty well with some of them already going to their juvenile stage.
Because the weather is pretty nice these days, Erin and I went to the docks to get more barnacles for next week. Lastly, I got to work a lot on my research proposal and abstract which hopefully you will get to read soon. Greetings dear readers! I can't believe it's already July and that another week of my time in Oregon has gone by. I finally got a nice and steady routine that allows me to take advantage of the OIMB facilities like the new gym and library, which also works well with my time in the lab. I'm trying to get into morning walks before getting ready to go to the lab where we spend time watching gooseneck and acorn barnacles mate to dissect their embryos and practice different pipette methods. We use this to create slides and take images or time-lapses that are helpful to compare and watch their divisions and different stages. This week we also learned how to fix and stain embryos with a dye to see their DNA in the confocal scope. This has helped me decide on what my research question is going to be. I plan to spend the summer researching the effect of the peristaltic contractions in the early stages of barnacle embryos and how they can affect the development of the egg shell and membrane. I already have some ideas for the experiments I could conduct in this research. For example, using a drug to inhibit the wavy contractions in the cell and another one to accelerate them. Then take time lapses or timed pictures to compare them to a control experiment with a nontreated cell from the same brood and grow them to see if there are any significant changes. As a side project, I want to continue working on identifying the formation of the gastrula and raise the sand dollar larva Gina and I got on our first day. This week was very calm and although some days I felt that I didn’t do as great with the lab techniques as I thought I would, I try to remind myself to take it easy, appreciate the moments and learn something meaningful from each day. That mindset really boosted me up and I ended up going on amazing walks with some new UO friends and exploring more of the local restaurants and spots in Charleston. Today, Friday, our REU advisors Nicole and Erin took us to a tide-pooling activity in South Cove where I got to learn more about sea stars and sea urchins. Seeing the beautiful landscapes that the forest creates when it connects to the cliffs and beaches is breathtaking. Last weekend we had an amazing time at the Cape Arago camping trip which has been my favorite activity so far and I can’t wait to go camping again with my mates. Since this next weekend is a 3 day weekend, I plan to visit the Charleston Marine Life Center, Bastendorf beach, join the OIMB 4th of July picnic, and maybe watch the fireworks in Coos Bay. I'll update you on that next week :)
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Sherlyn SanchezHello :) I'm Sher, a first-gen biology student transferring to UCSD and passionate about science. This summer I'll be working in George von Dassow`s lab doing barnacle embryology research. In this blog, I'll be sharing some of my adventures and life updates at the OIMB. Archives
August 2022
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