Benni Vargas, Summer 2014, Blog Post 2

Hi everyone! The CARE SEM SPUR Program has just ended and I have thoroughly enjoyed both the program events and the lab experience. I was very grateful for the seminars and workshops we have had. I took copious notes during those events because I knew that later on I will be asking myself, “What was that important thing they said during that workshop?”

In lab, we finally got our CFSE technique to work! After weeks of experiments that never seemed to work, we finally figured out that the concentration of CFSE dye that we have been using was too high. It was strange that our CFSE concentration was too high because in one paper we read, the authors used the same concentration and their experiments worked fine. We then used a lower concentration of CFSE and our experiments were working the way they should be.

There were many things I learned in my lab experience and one of them is time management. Reading scientific articles, analyzing data, preparing for the next day’s experiment(s), writing my research paper, preparing my poster and poster presentation, and all while working full-time in the lab has sharpened my time management skills. Seeing how my fellow lab members were constantly working hard made me want to constantly work hard too.

Although my summer research program and dorm residence contract have ended, I am currently commuting back and forth to the lab. I am looking forward to see what we will discover next.

Sam (my direct mentor) came to support me at my SPUR poster presentation!

 [³H]thymidine incorporation assay!