Project Title: Role of the Microenvironment on the Formation of Brain Tumors
BASIS Advisor: Dr. Murthy
Internship Location: UC San Francisco
Onsite Mentor: Dr. Joanna Phillips
Brain tumors—specifically gliomas—have a survival time of 15 to 16 months. There are many treatment options with various levels of success and risk, but gliomas are different from patient to patient, making this difficult. I will research ways to determine whether the concentration of certain proteins or the activation of pathways can influence the growth rate of tumor cells and even potentially kill tumor cells. Working with brain matter and brain tumors in a research environment in UC San Francisco will give me experience and understanding that will help me in my future career of a neurologist. Research shows the PI3K | AKT | MTOR pathway has an impact on tumor cell growth, but the problem is that this pathway is not active in every patient with a glioma, so the lab is trying to measure if this pathway is excessively active in an individual patient. This lab is using immunohistochemistry, which is the process of staining particular proteins, to try to measure the activation of the PI3K | AKT | MTOR pathway and its relation to tumor cell growth rate for individual glioma samples. The lab obtains brain tumor samples from live patients during surgery. The goal is to try to measure the activation of this pathway in live patients and use this information to influence diagnosis decisions or treatment options, and potentially get rid of the cancer all together or lessen the severity.
My Posts
Week 11 + 12: Presentation + Reflection
May 07, 2019
Hello, I decided to combine these two weeks because not much happened throughout. I worked mostly on my presentation and a little bit on my final abstract. I also decided to add a lab report to my final product so I will be working on that the following weeks too. The presentation is going well […]
Week 10: Final Product
Apr 24, 2019
So, I’ve started working on my final presentation and abstract this week and I’m just now realizing how close everything is. My project is over in just a few weeks and looking back, this whole thing seems so short. The end approached a lot faster than I thought and it has me stressed out trying […]
Week 9: PCR and Gel Electrophoresis
Apr 24, 2019
For some reason, I’m much more excited about going to the lab. This is also unrelated from my focus on the TME, but it is interesting nonetheless. This week I worked on PCR and Gel Electrophoresis, as the title says, which is not related to my project, but my mentor asked for me to help. […]
Week 8: Sick
Apr 16, 2019
This week I only went to the lab for one day since I got sick for Wednesday and Thursday, but I got to do the staining by myself, so I will explain how it works. First, you stain the batch of samples for whatever you are looking for in this trial, (ex. IBA1, CD204, CD163). […]
Week 7: CDs and other Identifiers
Apr 08, 2019
Immunofluorescence is difficult. As I hopefully mentioned before, Immunofluorescence is the process of binding certain primary antibodies to epitopes on the target protein or molecule. These antibodies are chemically conjugated with a fluorescent dye so that we can measure the protein/molecule. Additional antibodies can be added to the primary antibody to boost the signal and […]
Week 6: Learning Some Things
Mar 31, 2019
This week was similar to last, as in I did not have much work to do, so I will take this chance to discuss all of the background research and publications I’ve read to help me understand what I am doing in this lab. Since the general focus is on the brain tumor microenvironment or […]
Week 5: Understanding the Data
Mar 24, 2019
Thankfully, this week was a lot more relaxed than the others. Traveling to SF three times a week and reading research papers at home has started to take its toll on me. I usually work Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 11 to 4, but I have to wake up at 8 because the train leaves […]
Week 4: Data Analysis
Mar 18, 2019
Hello, This week I didn’t do any image analysis, which is kind of disappointing, but instead, I worked on data. My mentor told me what data they are looking for and asked me to figure out how to get there given the raw data. It wasn’t difficult but it was a nice change from reading […]
Week 3: Image Analysis and Cell Counting
Mar 10, 2019
Hello Everybody! This week I focused on analyzing the images taken from the microscope. I enjoy this process a lot, mainly because the stained cell cultures look almost mesmerizing. I started off on some small, practice images that were taken months before: Each color, or channel, represents a different protein or molecule that is being […]
Week 2
Mar 03, 2019
Hello, I was out of town for this week so I was unable to work on my senior project. Instead, I am going to talk about why I chose this and what the experience has been like so far. I picked this field of study, biology, because I’m going to major in biology in college […]
Week 1: Procedures and Background Information
Feb 22, 2019
Hello, So I’ve actually been to the lab twice in November and December to learn background information and complete training. I am working as part of a research group that studies the PI3K | AKT | mTOR pathway in human glioma cell samples. The main focus is to find better prognosis and treatment methods by […]