Project Title: Causes of a Broken Heart: Analyzing the Effects of Sirtuin-6 on CAVD
BASIS Advisor: Dr. Brown
Internship Location: Mayo Clinic
Onsite Mentor: Dr. Jordan Miller
The heart is the single most important organ in sustaining human body functions. The majority of blood is pumped through the aorta to the rest of the circulatory system. But what happens when blood flow significantly decreases? Other vital organs do not receive enough oxygen, causing them to fail. Caused by old age and/or unhealthy eating, Calcific Aortic Valve Disease (CAVD) calcifies the aortic valve, narrowing it and inhibiting blood flow. CAVD affects around 3 million people in the developed world, naming it the most common valvular heart disease in the aging population. Other than expensive and complicated surgical aortic valve replacements, there is no cure for CAVD. However, Sirtuin-6 (SIRT6) is a protein deacetylase that has been proven to function in pathways related to aging. Through my project, located at Mayo Clinic, I am examining the specific effects of SIRT6 on CAVD. I am to determine this effect by examining aortic valve cusp separation distance, calcium burden, and osterix protein levels in both young and old mice. By conducting this research and writing the research manuscript, I hope to contribute significant discoveries to the scientific community.
My Posts
The One with the Conference
May 12, 2019
Everything has almost come to an end! My manuscript is complete and so is my research. This week I am going to the Arteriosclerosis Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (ATVB) Conference in Boston where I am doing a poster presentation for my research! I am so so excited to be presenting there and seeing ground-breaking research […]
The One Where We Wrap it Up
May 06, 2019
The last sections of the manuscript are the results and discussion. The results section is where the results are reported (kinda obvious). The results need to be stated without bias or interpretation here. The data should be arranged in a logical order. When I was writing this section, I had to plan out what I […]
The One with the Procedures
Apr 28, 2019
After the background, the next part of the manuscript is the methods and materials section. The purpose of this section is to tell other scientists the necessary procedures to complete the experiment, so they can replicate it. When other scientists replicate experiments, the results are validated and become more trustworthy. The key to writing the […]
The One Where I Read Too Many Articles
Apr 16, 2019
The first section of the manuscript is the background. The background frames the whole paper and is the most tiresome to write. It provides a general description of the scientific knowledge in the surrounding areas. In my background, I hoped to cover the background of cardiovascular disease, the connections of CAVD to atherosclerosis, and tell […]
The One with the Manuscript
Apr 14, 2019
After completing the data collection, data analysis, and the creation of the research poster, my work during the summer was completed. However, I didn’t feel that my journey with this research was supposed to end there, so I spoke to my principal investigator and asked if I could continue working with him for my senior […]
The One with the Graphs
Apr 07, 2019
At this point in the project, all my lab procedures were completed. The Alizarin Stain was used to measure calcification in the aortic valve, echocardiography was used to measure functionality, and immunohistological analysis was used to measure pro-osteogenic tendencies. With all this data, I needed to figure out what it meant. I created six different […]
The One with the Fluorescent Dots
Mar 30, 2019
The last two methods allowed me to assess the functionality and calcification of the aortic valves. In my next procedure, I measured pro-osteogenesis tendencies by conducting an immunohistological analysis. Calcification is a part of bone growth (osteogenesis), so another way to prove the existence of calcification would be to measure the pro-osteogenic tendencies of the […]
The One with the Ultrasound
Mar 24, 2019
With the Alizarin Red Stain, I was able to test for calcification in the aortic valves. Now, I needed to measure the functionality of the valves. To do this, I used an ultrasound machine. No, not the one used during pregnancies. I used a specific type of ultrasound: an echocardiogram, which is basically an ultrasound […]
The One where I’m Caught Red Handed
Mar 18, 2019
After freezing dozens of mouse aortic valve slices, I conducted our first method of investigating SIRT6’s effects on CAVD: Alizarin Red stains. The purpose of this procedure is to detect calcification by highlighting calcium deposits in the frozen aortic valves. Since we know that SIRT6 reductions happen as age increases and that increased age leads to […]
The One where We Set it Up
Mar 10, 2019
Before an architect lays the foundation for a building, they draw a blueprint in which they make their plan for the building. As the architect of this project, I needed to create my own blueprint to guide me in figuring out the effects of Sirtuin-6 on CAVD. For my project, we used aortic valves from […]
The One with the Gross Valves
Mar 03, 2019
Now, its time for me to confuse everyone with complicated terminology! No, I’m kidding. I’m going to try my best to break down the processes of my experiment for you guys in my next couple of blog posts. I’ll start with a brief background on my research in this blog post. As people grow older […]
The One with an Introduction
Feb 28, 2019
Hey Guys! Welcome to my Senior Project Blog! My project is called “Causes of a Broken Heart: Analyzing the Effects of Sirtuin-6 on Calcific Aortic Valve Disease”. Before I get excited and use too many exclamation points and complicated terminology to explain what my project is about, I wanted to tell you how I chose […]