The latter half of this week, I started the fun and TBS-filled process of staining brain tissue to identify new neurons by a protein that they contain. It's a pretty interesting process, and a delicate one! The brain tissue is paper-thin, and must be transfered from filter to filter and vial to vial. And, of course, it must be rinsed in TBS three times after every move for five minutes at a time. My mentor and I took a peek at an un-covered piece of tissue on Friday right after we finished staining it with Vector Grey, and so far it looks fantastic. Monday, I will be arranging the brains in a particular order on gel-coated slides and cover-slipping them. Arranging them is very challenging, and I hope I do well!
I have also met a few other people in the lab this week. There are a few graduate students, who have just gone to California for a big conference, and a few undergraduate students from a different summer research program at Duke. Some are in the MOB program (not sure what that stands for!), and one is a Duke senior working on a big project that will be presented in San Diego in November. There is also a Howard Hughes undergraduate, though I have not had the chance to meet her just yet. All around me there is interesting work going on, and I've been looking in during my many TBS rinses!
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