June 15/16- How about a Holiday?

It took until the middle of the second week, but I’m finally actively in the lab :D Today I started by learning more about the specific to the research project I am working on and the hypothesis my supervisor is studying. After that we walked through how the bone tissue scaffolds are made with the method she is employing in the study. From there, I was able to start taking more responsibility and doing the preparation myself. Lesson one- when there isn’t AC or fans in the lab and its hotter inside than out, don’t expect it to be comfortable in a lab coat and gloves; take breaks and drink water to get through it. Lesson two- I am glove challenged. I am not sure if there is a trick doctors/surgeons/scientists know that I don’t, or maybe its because my hands were already sweaty from the heat, but I’m pretty sure its impossible to efficiently put on gloves when your hands are sweaty. I spent about 5 minutes putting on gloves… not my brightest moment of the week… 

Currently I am working on preparing samples with PBS as our solvent and adding GelMa and gold nanoparticles of various diameters to our solutions. At this point the solution is in the liquid form and can be chemically cross-linked by exposing the liquid to UV light which turns the liquid into a gel or jell-o like consistency. This gel is now a cross-linked tissue scaffold composed of all natural polymers in order to increase the similarities to natural body environment and reduce the chance that it would be rejected by real tissue. Check out some of my pictures below of sample preparations.

On Wednesday I also learned that the majority of people in my lab will be in various countries off at research symposiums during the week of the 27th of June presenting their research and the remaining people that aren’t going to conferences are most likely going to be taking holiday since most everyone will be gone. I can’t be the only one in the lab for safely reasons. All together this means that after asking the main professor, I am apparently getting a holiday that week! I wish I knew a little sooner because I wouldn’t be so rushed trying to decide, plan, and book where I want to visit during this time. Ultimately, I decided after going to Wroclaw, Poland from Friday-Sunday the 24-26 for an IAESTE planned weekend, I would head to Berlin by train and see the city for three and a half-ish days. After seeing Berlin, I will fly to Budapest and spend Thursday evening through Sunday evening in Budapest before going back to Warsaw and getting ready to go back to work. I owe a HUGE thanks here to my brother Ben and friend Anna for helping me decide what cities and countries to visit, where to stay (hostel) or at least what to look for in a hostel, and provide plenty of suggestions of things to do. Hopefully I will have enough time to at least hit the highlights that were mentioned and get to enjoy the time off and amazing opportunity to travel a bit around Europe :D