Week 2 of our attachment! A new week, a new beginning as we are about to embark on our journey as research scientists in the biology field.
At 9.30am, we meet our mentor for the week, Dr Ivan Lam. Who coincidentally is our senior in Nanyang Junior College! How cool is that! We started out the day with an interesting introduction into the field of biological materials in MSE, how they actually improve the materials aspect in order to improve treatments etc.
One interesting thing we learnt was in the field of cancer research. Cancer research is usually conducted on a 2D plane due to reasons like cost and convenience, yet cancer cells function in a 3D plane, thus it is necessary to come up with a method or structure to better understand how these cells function and device a method to actually cure cancer. Although a universal cure for cancer is a long process to work towards, due to the differential nature of cancer cells, it is possible to provide treatment for cancer for sure! Cancer cells are like 'survivors', they are able to grow and replicate outside the body as long as sufficient nutrients are provided for it to survive yet, it doesn't need growth factors to grow!
We also learnt that cancer cells are context based, which is some thing I did not give much thought of.
Collagen is also a protein that we learnt more of today. These protein assist in fixing our superficial wounds. Furthermore, we learnt about the animals used in research. Mice are easy to breed and shares somewhat similar DNA as humans. However, the internal organs and skin of pigs closely resemble humans.
We also learnt that cancer cells are context based, which is some thing I did not give much thought of.
Collagen is also a protein that we learnt more of today. These protein assist in fixing our superficial wounds. Furthermore, we learnt about the animals used in research. Mice are easy to breed and shares somewhat similar DNA as humans. However, the internal organs and skin of pigs closely resemble humans.
As our mentor completed his insightful introduction, he describes about cell culturing. We proceeded to the lab to learn more about cell culturing, preparation of samples and cell counting.
There is a special flask to contain the cells we are culturing. The flask contain ECM (extracellular matrix) which cause the cells they are dealing with to stick to the flask. The cells we used are quite cool; the cells originated from baby foreskin after their circumcision. The medium in the flask have to be favourable for cells. This means the right pH, growth proteins and nutrients.
Then, as for the culturing, our mentor withdrew the medium in the flask, washed each flask with PBS and added trypsin. PBS acts as a buffering medium and is isotonic as our cells, so that our cells will not have any net loss or gain in water. The trypsin acts to break the protein linkages on the ECM so that the cells can break free. In this case, the cells used are young and since it is from a baby, it has relatively long lifespan.
After that, the tubes containing the result is placed in a centrifuge machine to spin cause the cells to gather at the bottom of the tube. The solution is the removed and stored in the fridge to perform oxidative stress tomorrow to increase aging of the cell. Another sample is produced for staining.
We are introduced to various freezers. There is one in particular, which is the coolest there literally. The liquid nitrogen freezer reaching negative 180 degree Celsius.
We also performed a test to determine the cell concentration to determine how many cells are present in a milliliter. It is placed in a special film an observed under microscope.
Yes, YOU CAN ACTUALLY COUNT CELLS! :O
An average is determined from 4 squares. It cannot be determined accurately for the aged cells ;due to their sparse and low concentration.
Our first hand view of the highly clean lab!
Then, as for the culturing, our mentor withdrew the medium in the flask, washed each flask with PBS and added trypsin. PBS acts as a buffering medium and is isotonic as our cells, so that our cells will not have any net loss or gain in water. The trypsin acts to break the protein linkages on the ECM so that the cells can break free. In this case, the cells used are young and since it is from a baby, it has relatively long lifespan.
After that, the tubes containing the result is placed in a centrifuge machine to spin cause the cells to gather at the bottom of the tube. The solution is the removed and stored in the fridge to perform oxidative stress tomorrow to increase aging of the cell. Another sample is produced for staining.
We are introduced to various freezers. There is one in particular, which is the coolest there literally. The liquid nitrogen freezer reaching negative 180 degree Celsius.
We also performed a test to determine the cell concentration to determine how many cells are present in a milliliter. It is placed in a special film an observed under microscope.
Yes, YOU CAN ACTUALLY COUNT CELLS! :O
An average is determined from 4 squares. It cannot be determined accurately for the aged cells ;due to their sparse and low concentration.
The more numerous young cells and sparse old cells under the microscope!
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