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 :)
1 Comment
Irma
7/21/2022 09:31:49 pm
I am so proud of you and your entusiasm for lern and have practical experiences
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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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