Things I Learned: I learned a lot of things like how to use lab equipment, like microtomes, how to check the pH of something (not with the litmus paper, with like an actual machine), and about the different procedures they run. There are two procedures, western blot and immunohistochemistry (IHC), that I am focusing on for my project. The purpose of IHC is to find a protein in a tissue sample (in this case a brain tissue sample). We are specifically looking for the tau protein because usually tau stabilizes the microtubules in the axon so that the neurotransmitters can flow more stably down the neuron, but in Alzheimer's, hyperphosphorylation of the tau occurs so it detaches from its position and floats around. The tau is sticky so it sticks to each other forming a tangled mess (neurofibrillary tangle) that prevents things from flowing through the neuron leading to its death.
I haven't really researched the western blot yet because I'm first going to make sure I understand all the details in the IHC protocol because apparently the western blot is more difficult.
What I Did: This week I mostly did research. I shadowed a person doing IHC and did a few buffer washes for her (part of IHC protocol).
Days I Went: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday
It's awesome you're doing IHC because that's the kind of procedure I'm doing at my lab as well. What kind of data are you hoping to find/how do you plan to go about finding the link between Alzheimer's and brain trauma?
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping to find out if my brain tissue samples have the proteins that I'm looking for (which are the tau protein and the amyloid protein because they are significant in Alzheimer's). I am still in the training process so I'm sure they'll tell me more about how to analyze the results.
DeletePrevious research shows that brain trauma can cause Alzheimer's because of the amyloid protein, so when I do IHC on the brain trauma sample, I'm hoping to find a strong concentration in there.
This is so exciting! This is an extremely important time for Alzheimer's research. There are press releases and news stories daily on some of the exciting work and results. An FDA-approved drug, "Statins for the Brain", and new grant money, and pinpointing the exact area of the brain--all these announcements in the last week or two! I look forward to hearing about your experiences.
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting work! I'm curious to learn if there is a correlation between Alzheimer's and slight, yet chronic head trauma, like the kind a martial artist might endure.
ReplyDeleteKinza,
ReplyDeleteThis is a great field to be working in. I have a good friend who played football and suffered a handful of concussions and now in his late 20s is starting to show early side effects of such trauma. There is still limited information on the topic. I look forward to following your work and checking out your findings.
Hi Kinza! Your research seems really interesting and looking forward to seeing what you find. You mentioned Parkinson's and Down syndrome too, so I was wondering if you would be looking at those in depth as well or is that just what some of the other researchers in your area are studying? If you are looking at them what have you found/ learned so far and if not, do the researchers tell you about their data to compare it to that of Alzheimers?
ReplyDeleteSo I don't know if this is a weird thing about my lab specifically or if this happens in all labs, but we all work on our own experiments and then we analyze it however we want. A lot of the times a couple people will work together but not everyone, so the researchers don't tell me their data unless I ask (which I do if I helped in that procedure). I don't think I'm going to look in depth in anything else because when I was writing my proposal and whatnot I didn't actually know they had all these other tissue samples from these diseases. If I do have more time (which I'm pretty sure I will), I will use another method, western blotting, to compare TBI and Alzheimer's.
DeleteI always enjoy listening to students talk about the various procedures and techniques utilized in laboratory research. You are lucky to be able to get exposure to the latest laboratory technology and I am envious :-)
ReplyDeleteKinza--are you planning to incorporate any of your sport capstone knowledge into the project? I know there are studies on-going that look into the connection between Alzheimer's and athletes who suffered repeated concussions. Perhaps there could be something there for you to check out. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteI was definitely going to. Actually, that was one of the reasons I was so excited to do this topic. Unfortunately, I had to switch the direction of my project so I can't do that anymore.
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