LAB LIFE 1- I'm learning

SO it's been TWO weeks and what have I learnt ?

If this is your first time coming across my blog, I am currently undertaking an 8 week lab project at my university to understand the neurochemical consequences of histamine dysfunction studied in a histamine knockout zebrafish.

The title is a bit of a mouthful, but if you are already a science undergraduate, you will be used to this now.

My title broken down:

Neurochemical = chemicals usually found in the the nervous system. The nervous system is made up of the brain and spinal cord. For my project, i am focusing on the zebrafish brain.

Histamine is a neurotransmitter in the brain. It is not one of the main neurotransmitters but there have been studies that link histamine and aggression in animals.

So my project will be looking at histamine knockout zebrafish, meaning the gene that is responsible for the production of histamine has been removed.

What did i do in my first week?

I was super excited and nervous all in one, but by the end of the week, i finally began to find my feet in the lab and its exciting. My first week didn’t involve much of doing my own project but, as like any job that you start , it involved a lot of shadowing and I am very grateful I wasn’t just thrown into the deep end. My supervisor is very laid back and I am appreciative of how much time he has spent to make sure I understand the theory of the machines i'll be using and underlying ideas that led to the project he set out for me.

What did i do in my second week ?

After a fairly simple first week. Week 2 just like how the weather changed in the UK from burning heat to rain decided to show me that working in a lab wasn’t all cookies and cream. Monday morning...the control experiments i ran to get a standard measurement to base all my data off wasn’t very clear and to further the issues, after thinking it was fixed another mistake was made. It can get frustrating but making these mistakes got me to think. I didn't have my supervisor behind my shoulder each time telling me where things were going wrong. My brain was in overdrive and although they were only small problems, it got me to really understand my project and the machine i had just only learnt how to use 5 days ago.

With 6 weeks left, there is so much more i am going to learn and once i fully wrap my head my head around the project, i'll do a science explained post …EXCITING!!!