Week 1

Hi and Welcome to my blog!

Over the course of the next twelve weeks, I will be documenting my experiences from my Senior Research Project at the Arizona Biomedical Collaborative Neurotrauma Lab!

But first, here’s a little background on my project:

     I will be working alongside Bret Tallent, the Laboratory Manager here at Neurotrauma.     My main task will be assist him in analyzing and interpreting behavioral data from over fifty hours of video footage. Over the past two months, Bret recorded twelve hour periods of the mice behavior from six different cages, three with the modified enrichment device whose effectiveness we are testing, and three standard caging units. From each half hour segment of footage, we will be recording the mice behavior towards one another in the form of aggression scores. The majority of what I talk about on my blog will be about this project and the data I collect and analyze from the video footage.  

My first week at Neurotrauma was filled with introductions and instructions. Although I had limited laboratory experience before starting here, the atmosphere of the lab was much different than I expected it to be. Because the Neurotrauma lab is accustomed to having high school interns and volunteers in the lab, all the people I met were extremely helpful and patient as I learnt some basic, and other Neurotrauma specific laboratory rules.

Because of the nature of the research that is conducted at Neurotrauma, brains of rodents, specifically strains of domesticated Mice and Rats are used thoroughly and are often obtained from the animals housed in the off-site Vivarium. I was able to visit the Vivarium with Bret during my first week, where we traveled three stories underground into the animal housing facility. It was a very unique experience because it was completely different from what I expected it to be. Clean, sterile and bright, the animal facility houses the mice that are studying and I had a chance to see them (which were much, much smaller than I expected) and the camera set-up Bret had designed inside of the Vivarium to record the videos. 

I’m really glad I had a chance to see the animals before I started watching the videos because it helped me have a better sense, and in some ways, a stronger connection, with the project. Ultimately, the new enrichment device is designed to be more cost efficient, non-disruptive and invasive to researchers, and better for the well being of the animals. Seeing the animals beforehand made my understanding of the importance of this project much stronger.

During this week I also began my Lab Safety Training, which consisted of online assignments in the areas of Basic Laboratory Safety, and Chemical Safety.

Every Thursday morning is the Neurotrauma Laboratory meeting where the 10+ researchers in the Lab meet to discuss any lab business, current projects and bounce ideas off of one another. The Lab meeting was definitely a highlight of my week because I was able to see and appreciate the larger scope of the research that was being conducted around me!

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you in next week’s post!

Tasha