Sooooooo, I apologize for the delay, but my last few weeks of the immersion term were quite hectic. I spent most of my time on research in collaboration with the famous Mary Goldring lab, but I also spent some more time observing surgeons in the clinic. So I'll break each week down one-by-one.
Week 5: During Week 5, my main goal was to become adept at RNA isolation, a process that involves a huge amount of micro-pipetting, something that I have not done much of in Ithaca. Miguel and Kirsty from the Goldring gave me a great protocol to follow. Briefly, I begin by harvesting articular cartilage from a mouse knee joint, which is not an easy task and requires a lot of skill with a scalpel. Then, the RNA isolation begins, which takes usually takes two full days. Finally, we measure the purity and quality of the RNA, and if it is good enough, we can perform qPCR to determine gene expression in the articular cartilage. I successfully isolated high-quality RNA with my six practice samples. In addition to research, I spent some time with Dr. Bostrom in the clinic visiting patients. Dr. Bostrom has been a hip and knee replacement surgeon for over 25 years, and he is one of the best at what he does. It's interesting how each surgeon has his/her own way of talking to patients and explaining to them what their options are. In the case of joint replacement surgeons, the options are actually quite simple: either deal with the arthritic pain, get a steroid shot, or have your joint replaced. But surgeons of course are very courteous to their patients, and explain things in a very comforting way. Dr. Bostrom was very good at ensuring his patients would get the best treatment.
Week 6: This was the week that my animals were finally of age to begin experimenting, so once again, I was in the lab a lot! I was also teaching an HHMI grantee how to use our tibial loading device, as he will be using it in the near future. It felt great to teach someone the methods that my lab has developed over the years. Besides experimenting, I continued my practice for qPCR, as the real thing was coming up next week. Again practice went very well. Besides my time in the lab, I attended a research meeting with my mentor, Dr. Cross, where I presented both my research from Cornell and from my clinical work I was doing in the city about malnutrition and infection post-total hip replacement. The rest of the research team was very interested in both of my projects. I also had some time to observe Dr. Cross in the OR to see more joint replacements.
Week 7: A very unfortunate last week resulted from my RNA isolation failing. As I mentioned earlier, my practice samples went extremely well, but when it came to the real thing, my RNA purity was terrible - I'm still not sure what I did wrong. But I did perform some more experiments, and Kirsty and Miguel are helping me out by performing RNA isolation themselves while I'm in Ithaca - they're two of the nicest and smartest people I know. So, hopefully my second batch turns out better than the first. I also spent a lot of time on my clinical project and managed to obtain data for sixty patients, so I'll have some solid preliminary data for my immersion term paper and poster. My final day in the city I spent with Dr. Bostrom on his sail boat in the Long Island Sound. IT WAS AWESOME. We did some swimming, some tubing, and he treated us to drinks and dinner. It was a great way to end a busy seven weeks in the city. Overall, the clinical immersion term was very helpful, and I have a huge amount of motivation to improve treatment for osteoarthritis. I know there is something else out there that can help treat/prevent the disease, and I will figure it out in the rest of my years as a PhD student at Cornell. Thanks for reading!
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