Week 2: Ben

This week, I continued to shadow in the Alonso lab. I learned more about their projects in expanding beta cell mass to recover insulin secretion capacity and treat diabetes. I observed their FSIVGTT protocol in action for the first time, and also shadowed the staining and imaging of pancreatic tissue for a few of the ongoing projects. Also, I followed Dr. Alonso on Thursday to her outpatient clinic, where I observed her rounds in checking in with diabetic patients. From this, I learned a lot of things about diabetes care and the field. First, it was really interesting to see how widespread Dexcoms (continuous glucose monitors) are in the clinic. They were user friendly, simple to use, but very robust in their measurement of blood glucose, which provides lots of use for the clinician to make recommendations in their treatment regiments.  Second, it was interesting to see how normalized Ozempic and other GLP-1 agonists are in diabetes care. At this point, much of my knowledge of Ozempic came from the media and its usage by celebrities to lose weight, and it is from media where my perception of it is controversial. It was really insightful to see how useful it was in the clinic in diabetes management as it decreases hunger and caloric intake of diabetes patients to prevent high glucose spikes. As per my clinician's words, GLP-1 agonists have been a game changer in diabetes management, as it helps lower blood glucose while decreasing weight gain, which is a drawback of increasing insulin content in bolus injections. Finally, I learned about the intersection of lifestyle changes and pharmacological intervention in diabetes care, and how endocrinologists have to navigate this line. A lot of their recommendations depends on what the patient ultimately wants, but they need to be able to communicate medicine and science to them effectively if they believe pharmacological intervention is absolutely needed, which is often the case in patients with dangerously high levels of chronic blood glucose, ketones, hemoglobin A1C, and triglycerides which need to be brought down immediately in which lifestyle changes cannot do. Moving to next week, I will be presenting my research to the lab to introduce them to my research in organ-on-chip models, and I will be practicing the islet isolation protocol for the first time. Also, I plan to shadow in the bariatric division to observe surgeries. Finally, I have plans to talk to the Shahin Rafii group, whose work revolves around engineered adaptable endothelial cells and co-culturing them with tissues such as pancreatic islets and cancer cells to study how they adapt to them. Their research complements mine, and I aim to engage in a discussion to see how we can collaborate and help me drive my project back when I go back to Ithaca.