Week 7: Eleana

On Monday, after activating the T-cells over the weekend. The repeat of the co-culture of the experiment was going to begin, however there was a very low viability of the T-cells. Thus, the co-culture experiment was canceled for flow cytometry. Using the cells that were left, a new co-couture experiment imaging the cells using the Incucyte. In this experiment T-cells were restimulated, and co-cultured with irradiated glioblastoma or AT3 breast cancer cells in a special insert we made which separated the cells and when the insert is removed and allows the cells to interact. I stained the cells with two color proliferation dyes that will track the cell’s division’s over time and will fade with subsequent cell generations. We can see these two colors, red and green within the Incucyte. This week, I also gave my presentation to group meeting and spent time analyzing and compiling the flow cytometry data we collected over the past weeks.

Later in the week, we got to shadow Dr. Beal, a brain radiation oncologist. We saw several patients, and observed how Dr. Beal treated and diagnosed them. It was a bitter-sweet experience and it hits close to home. It was a good reminder of why we do the research that we do. To have better patient outcomes and to better other people’s lives. We sat in on several cases, and got to observe the radiation room and learn how the machine works and typical radiation treatments for patients. At the end of the day, we attended a talk on extracellular vesicles that may be a particular mechanism for how metastasis spreads to different parts of the body. The lecture was very insightful, and I learned a lot of a new field of cancer research that is beginning to take shape. At the end of the week, I passaged the cells to prepare them for a repeat of the imaging co-culture experiment.