Lab Work
How mice are changing the world.
Five minutes in and I began to worry. Internship had started, and my mentor was no where to be found. Ten minutes passed, and I finally heard footsteps echoing through the hallway. I peeked around the corner of the door, and spotted my mentor Olivia. While I was relieved to find her, something seemed wrong. She was wearing her lab coat, buttoned to the top, with her gloves and goggles on. I hadn't seen her with so much safety equipment at once. What was she doing that could require such safety precautions?
When I strolled over to her workspace in the lab, I glared through the shelves to the other side of her bench only to find four boxes with mice in them. About sixteen adorable mice enclosed in four plastic containers scurried around with no purpose. They seemed so delightful from afar, but the closer I got, the more repulsive they became. Their fur was ragged and untamed, they looked repulsive, and worst of all, their stench was horrendous. It quickly filled the lab from wall to wall, tormenting every worker throughout the day. I had never seen such vile organisms before. So if these mice are so revolting, why are they still in the lab?
It turns out mice contain a genome that is 95% identical to that of a human. They are also cost effective and cheap to breed. Additionally, mice prove to be a great model for circulation research. Half of the research completed in the lab is about circulation. Olivia, my mentor, is focusing a large amount of her research on circulation in the mice— more specifically, ischemia/reperfusion injury. Ischemia is the restriction of blood in a tissue, while reperfusion is the when the blood is returned to the tissue. What she does is take out the mice’s hearts, attach them to catheters, and run a buffer through the heart, that acts as blood for the heart. The buffer keeps the heart functioning after dissection. She then completes the ischemia/reperfusion by cutting off the blood the blood circulation, then turning it back on for a few minutes after. For her research, she obtains mice that lack certain proteins in their cells. She then completes the ischemia/reperfusion process on these hearts, and afterwards observes the amount of tissue death. If the hearts that lack certain proteins show less tissue death, then she knows that these proteins play an important role in the protection of the heart. Once all the proteins that play a role in this process are understood, it will be easier to create a drug to treat this problem. In a way, these mice could be saving the lives of humans in the future.
After taking note of a few of the mice’s “features,” I put on my gloves, lab coat, and goggles, and began to watch. Olivia lifted the first mouse out of the container, and transferred it onto her workspace. She taped it down, and euthanized it before dissection. She didn’t have much time before the heart would die out. She made an incision across the abdomen up to the chest, took out the heart, then attached it to a syringe. With the syringe, she ran buffer through the heart to clean it out. This only took about one minute. It was phenomenal how quickly she could complete this, yet be so precise. After all, the heart was only about the size of a button. She then attached it to the catheter, and completed the ischemia/reperfusion injury process. My dizziness had kicked in and my stomach began to churn.
Between the foul smell, and the blood from the mice, I began to feel nauseous. I was questioning whether or not I should sit down, or continue to watch, risking the possibility I may faint on my mentor. She looked back at me and offered, “Wow, I’m so proud of you. You haven’t cringed at all.” She clearly wasn't seeing through to my altering level of consciousness. I then realized, these mice will be saving the lives of millions in years to come. It is research like this that will one day make statements like “you had a heart attack” or “she has cancer” not seem so bad. With that thought in mind, mice dissections turned out to be not so bad after all.
When I strolled over to her workspace in the lab, I glared through the shelves to the other side of her bench only to find four boxes with mice in them. About sixteen adorable mice enclosed in four plastic containers scurried around with no purpose. They seemed so delightful from afar, but the closer I got, the more repulsive they became. Their fur was ragged and untamed, they looked repulsive, and worst of all, their stench was horrendous. It quickly filled the lab from wall to wall, tormenting every worker throughout the day. I had never seen such vile organisms before. So if these mice are so revolting, why are they still in the lab?
It turns out mice contain a genome that is 95% identical to that of a human. They are also cost effective and cheap to breed. Additionally, mice prove to be a great model for circulation research. Half of the research completed in the lab is about circulation. Olivia, my mentor, is focusing a large amount of her research on circulation in the mice— more specifically, ischemia/reperfusion injury. Ischemia is the restriction of blood in a tissue, while reperfusion is the when the blood is returned to the tissue. What she does is take out the mice’s hearts, attach them to catheters, and run a buffer through the heart, that acts as blood for the heart. The buffer keeps the heart functioning after dissection. She then completes the ischemia/reperfusion by cutting off the blood the blood circulation, then turning it back on for a few minutes after. For her research, she obtains mice that lack certain proteins in their cells. She then completes the ischemia/reperfusion process on these hearts, and afterwards observes the amount of tissue death. If the hearts that lack certain proteins show less tissue death, then she knows that these proteins play an important role in the protection of the heart. Once all the proteins that play a role in this process are understood, it will be easier to create a drug to treat this problem. In a way, these mice could be saving the lives of humans in the future.
After taking note of a few of the mice’s “features,” I put on my gloves, lab coat, and goggles, and began to watch. Olivia lifted the first mouse out of the container, and transferred it onto her workspace. She taped it down, and euthanized it before dissection. She didn’t have much time before the heart would die out. She made an incision across the abdomen up to the chest, took out the heart, then attached it to a syringe. With the syringe, she ran buffer through the heart to clean it out. This only took about one minute. It was phenomenal how quickly she could complete this, yet be so precise. After all, the heart was only about the size of a button. She then attached it to the catheter, and completed the ischemia/reperfusion injury process. My dizziness had kicked in and my stomach began to churn.
Between the foul smell, and the blood from the mice, I began to feel nauseous. I was questioning whether or not I should sit down, or continue to watch, risking the possibility I may faint on my mentor. She looked back at me and offered, “Wow, I’m so proud of you. You haven’t cringed at all.” She clearly wasn't seeing through to my altering level of consciousness. I then realized, these mice will be saving the lives of millions in years to come. It is research like this that will one day make statements like “you had a heart attack” or “she has cancer” not seem so bad. With that thought in mind, mice dissections turned out to be not so bad after all.
Reflection
Initially, I wasn't sure what to write my article about. Randy kept saying that people use their Ampersand article as college essays, scholarship essays, and so on. Everyone seemed to write their articles about themselves and their experiences, but I wanted to base mine off of what my place of internship does. I always thought it would be more interesting to learn about what a business does, rather than some random student. The only problem was, if I wrote my Ampersand article about something other than myself, how would I use it as my scholarship essay, college essay, and so on? Eventually I came to the conclusion that I want all of these things to be separate. Even though it would be harder to write a unique essay for each separate occasion, I feel like there would be more opportunities for creativity in the essays themselves. Additionally, I would be able to try out new writing tactics on each essay, and if one turned out bad, I wouldn't have to worry about every college, scholarship, and so on reading it. With this thought in mind, I just wrote without any of these restrictions, and I feel like my article came out better than it would have before.