Finishing Up...

Today, I moved home from Harvard. I know I've said this a million times by now, but I can't believe how fast these 8 weeks have gone!

In the lab, I did minor things around the lab, and ran into last minute obstacles that kept me from finding any quantitative results on the Hippo project. However, Dirk is going to continue the project, and he promises to keep me updated. I also had a chance to see another surgery performed by Dr. Thayer. The surgery was supposed to be a normal hernia case where the small intestine slipped through a woman's muscle. However, it turned out it was her fallopian tube that had slipped through the muscle. This basically meant that the woman was at high risk for ectopic pregnancy because the fallopian tube was so damaged. Luckily, the patient decided she was already finished having children (she already had two healthy boys). I was really sad to leave Mass. General, but I left knowing I learned a lot... even more than I expected.

I spent my last few days at Harvard enjoying myself, and finding some time to study for my psych. final. I think the final went well, but what was also of high importance to me was enjoying my last few days at Harvard with my SSP friends. They're some people I will never forget, and I know we will always keep in touch. I will definitely miss Greenough Hall, and all of my other friends from outside the dorm as well.

Many thanks to Brooks, Mass. General, Dr. Dunn, Dr. Thayer, Dirk, everyone else in the lab, Harvard SSP, and Mr. Palm. This was an incredible summer, and it couldn't have happened without you all. I had fun, learned a TON about science and even more about myself, and had an overall amazing experience. 

Good luck to all of the future SFS-ers!

-Mike

Week 6

I still can't believe how fast the time is passing...

This week in the lab we ran into a lot of obstacles. At the beginning of the week we thought we were ready to compare PDAC and normal pancreas samples. However, when we ran our first comparison PCR, we did not get the results we expected. In fact, we got basically no results. So, I spent the week troubleshooting the PCR and figuring out what went wrong. I ran another reverse transcription cDNA synthesis to make sure it wasn't a problem with the cDNA. However, I believe that it was a problem with the primers used in the PCR. So, I ordered new primers and will hopefully be able to move on next week.

I spent Tuesday shadowing Dr. Thayer, who is the P.I. of the lab I work in. Dr. Thayer is also a surgeon at MGH, and specializes in treating cancer patients. I first followed her around in the clinic where she met with several patients. It was interesting to see the patient-doctor interaction as compared to when I was in the OR and the patients were under anesthesia. Later, I observed her perform a surgery in which she injected radioactive isotopes into a woman with breast cancer. She then examined her lymph nodes to see whether the cancer had spread/how it spread. This was all done in order to see if the patient was a candidate for chemotherapy or not. This was the most interesting part of the day because Dr. Thayer taught me a lot about breast cancer and how each and every patient has to be treated differently depending on things such as their age, personal beliefs/preferences, body type, etc. She also talked about the psychological effects breast cancer has on women. I loved hearing about this because breast cancer is so prevalent and effects almost everyone, whether they have breast cancer or not. It was also great to see Dr. Thayer working in the OR because before Tuesday I had only seen her when I was presenting my work to her at our weekly lab meetings (which can be quite intimidating).

Again, another great week!