first week in the lab

Hi, my name is Elizabeth Deerhake and I'm working in Dr. Arepally's lab this summer. The lab is rather small compared to others on campus - it consists of an undergraduate, lab tech, research assistant, and Dr. Arepally. She often makes rounds in the hospital as well. Hannah, a student in Howard Hughes last year, was asked to come back and work in the lab this summer. She and I both go to NCSSM so it's nice to have someone I'm familiar with. The lab is researching HITT, an immune response to the blood-thinner heparin which can cause severe clotting. The antigen is a complex of the heparin and the protein PF4. My project will be finding the concentration of PF4 in the general population. I will run ELISAs to find the amount of the protein in many many samples from the Blood Bank. This week, I've become oriented in the lab and have learned how to run an ELISA. I've got lots of pipetting to look forward to this summer! I've really enjoyed the team atmosphere of the lab and it's interesting to hear about different portions of the research. Today, some data came back showing the relation between charge density on the complex and clotting. Before, many hypothesized that size played the major role. It's really exciting to truly be on the cutting edge of scientific research, especially when the applications are so life-changing.