As mentioned in my project proposal post, this summer I’ll be working with the Bygrave Lab at the Tufts Medical School to research the impact the protein Traf3 has on fear and anxiety - like behaviors. 

Since this project entails running behavioral tests with mice, I had lots of training courses to complete this first week. Most of the time, working in front of the computer is boring; however, learning about the guidelines behind working with animals was very insightful and gave me a new perspective on research.

Animal research has received great backlash from activists that bring up fair concerns about the appropriate methodology and moral issues surrounding animal studies. The article “The dark side of animal experiments” explained in great detail why more regulations are needed to ensure the welfare of all animals that are contributing to science. Throughout the week, I read similar articles and familiarized myself with the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) protocol to ensure the welfare of the animals I will be working with throughout the summer. 

While I’ve always had mixed feelings about animal research, being exposed to the numerous training - that everyone in the lab is required to have -, I’m confident in the work scientists are doing to better understand biological systems and thus develop life-saving treatments. Thank you IACUC and the workers of Tufts’ Comparative Medicine Services (CMS), who ensure the humane, ethical, and legal treatment of our animals! And thank you to all animal activists, as without them animals wouldn’t have a voice. 

Speaking of animal welfare… After all the training was done, I followed Lina Oh, the PhD student I’m working on this project with, while she showed me how to handle the mice throughout the week. It was a very exciting experience, especially because this is my first time working in a lab. By the end of the week, I was comfortable with holding our mice, and they seemed pretty comfortable with me too! This was an important first step as, naturally, mice are not used to being held. So, for this to not be a crucial factor in our upcoming studies, our two cohorts of 15-20 mice were each held for 2 minutes for 3 days. 

Finally, I got to shadow our technician Shiyu (Matt) Zhang performing some perfusions before leaving to start his PhD journey in England (good luck Matt!). I would like to dedicate a little bit of this post to thank Matt for sharing his experiences as a student, lab tech, and now PhD student. He was willing to answer all my questions about potential career pathways and I appreciated his honesty when it came to talking about different issues in the world of research in the United States. And, of course, for teaching me why perfusions, a surgical technique used to flush blood from the circulatory system and immediately preserve (fix) tissue, is necessary for imaging tissue more efficiently. Thanks to this shared knowledge I am eager to try out perfusions and am more excited about different career paths.

I will end my reflection with a huge thank you to my PI, Alexei Bygrave, who sent many, many emails to get me approved for the protocols and key card access to different facilities. By consistently checking in with me about the procedures I am shadowing and the project background (not to mentionthe great lattes he makes for his team), Alexei has showed me what a great mentor he is and will continue to be throughout my time in his lab.

Well, that’s it for my first week. Thank you all for reading :-)

Vivian