Laboratories Big and Small

This week was not particularly exciting, but I do feel like I got a lot of things done. I focused almost all my time this week into my lab work, and we were able to make some strides on the project I am contributing to. We made several constructs using a variety of different variables over Monday and Tuesday, and then on Wednesday we went down to the multi-photon microscopy lab to image. We took several different Z-stacks, which are a series of images going into the depth of the sample, which we then were able to compile into 3-D images of our scaffolds. We also performed histology and staining. So far, the results are positive in that we have reduced the amount of air entrapment, but the methods are not perfect. I also performed some side work on other projects, including dissections of donated human ear tissue to isolate auricular (ear) chondrocytes.
The second major event of my week was receiving a tour of the Central Laboratory. Part of my work this summer will be writing a few pages summarizing the work that Hospital labs perform. For most people, both patients and doctors alike, the lab is simply a black box, where blood and other samples go in and a variety of numbers come out. However, as both a researcher and an engineer, this answer was never good enough for me, so I took the opportunity of working the hospital to gain access to the lab and see it for myself. I received a tour from Joshua Hayden, a PhD in chemistry who works as the associate director of lab. It was an extremely eye-opening experience. I found out that the central lab is ENORMOUS! It is a mix of a huge, automated conveyor belt system that performs the majority of the tests, with a large support staff of technicians and scientists who perform the other required tests and ensure the integrity of the machine results. The NYP lab performs over 16 million tests per year and covers 10,000 samples per day. It runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is really unbelievable, but at the same time is the only way a hospital of its size could operate efficiently enough to be successful. In addition, the hospital is in the process of updating its equipment. I would definitely recommend checking it out. Its not the most exciting thing that happens in a hospital, but its definitely a hidden treasure.