What It’s Really Like Being a Lab Rat

This morning proved to be much different from the get-go. Instead of meeting Dr. Tucker, Lisa met me a few minutes after 8am to take me to the lab I worked in yesterday. She apologized to me, “Sorry, I was working on studying rabbit behavior on BSL3 today” as if it was an everyday occurrence. Well, I guess it is for her.

Once we got to the lab, I pretty much remembered how to get the cryostat set up. She watched me and made sure I found all the correct tools before bolting back out to go help with another experiment she was preparing. I quickly found myself alone in the lab, working with the same rabbit brain I was slicing the day before. However, today I was much more confident in my abilities. I grabbed my headphones, put an episode of Forensic Files on, put on fresh gloves, and got to work.

There was much more foot traffic in the lab today, and it was nice being able to get acquainted with some new faces! One woman in particular, Caroline, was doing some interesting work while training a new hire, whose name is Miles. We briefly introduced ourselves and I learned that she actually went to Mount DeSales and often admired RPCS’ crew tank and fields! If I hadn’t known she was a PhD student and already out of undergrad, I totally would have thought she was my age. She (and almost everyone in the lab for that matter) didn’t look much older than I did! I was quickly humbled by the sheer amount of intelligence and talent in the room as more engineers, chemists, and handlers entered the room to begin setting up a new machine. During one of the two times Dr. Tucker stopped by to check in on me, I asked her how old all of these kids were, and she explained that they were all mid or young twenties. In that moment, I truly realized that I was old and that this could be me in a few short years. My jaw could have dropped to the floor if I hadn’t been mid-slice.

Since Dr. Tucker was on call most of the day, she was visiting patients and doing other work, so I took a break for 45 minutes around noon to eat my lunch. Caroline and Miles actually invited me to eat lunch with them, so I gladly accepted the offer.

After lunch, I quickly went back to the lab to continue my cryostat-ing. I wanted to finish the section of the brain I had been working on. By 2pm, I had close to 95 slides finished, with 3-5 slices per slide. Between periods of 5 slides, I often closed the cryostat, warmed my stiff hands back up, and admired the work being done around me. Caroline explained what she was doing with pipettes and isolating a protein from the rabbits’ blood to tell if they had or hadn’t received treatment. Some of the wording went over my head (I wish I could understand it all), but it was very impressive watching her create solutions and seeing them change color (an indication of treatment vs. non-treatment).

While some fun chatter happened around me for the rest of the afternoon, I continued forging ahead on my rabbit brain while remaining friendly with the people around me. It was fun to hear their witty banter and their jokes (that weren’t so science-y I couldn’t understand) and see how they all got along very well. They were just getting ready to prep a rabbit to test out the new machine when Dr. Tucker came to take me back out to the front.

Day 2 proved to be a more mentally grueling day for me, since I spent most of my day working on the same task. It certainly was a good challenge and a good way of knowing whether or not I could work in a lab for a real job. I felt right at home doing what I needed to do with like-minded and driven people around me, which really motivated me to get a lot done. Everyone there also made me feel very included, so it almost felt like I had been there for years and not just less than 48 hours. I really enjoyed working in the lab and seeing the different tasks happening at the same time and learning about the teamwork needed through many different specialties in the lab.

I got to catch up with Dr. Tucker while she walked me out, and asked about a few clarifying questions on the work I saw and the work I was doing. She also explained some of the new and exciting adventures or possibilities for me the next three days. She had to go back on call at 4pm, so she said goodbye to me and headed towards the elevator at 3:59. I definitely left the campus feeling pretty accomplished.

Below: What my view looked like for the day (pictured are slides on top, and sections of rabbit brains inside the cryostat, along with the slide box)

Some Questions or Some Knowledge from Day 2

Today I spent a lot more time with Lisa than I did Dr. Tucker due to her demanding schedule. I got to ask Lisa some questions about her process for the lab and what her plans were.

Q: I’ve noticed there are quite a number of people working on the many elements of just this experiment alone. How many would you estimate and can it be hard working with so many people?

A: There are A LOT of people involved. It definitely can be tricky at some times, especially right now since we are supposed to have a paper finished by the end of this week, but for the most part I think we all understand that sticking to the schedule is important. For example, we sometimes ship some of our data to other facilities for testing, so sometimes we’re left hanging on data analysis for a period of time. Usually I’d say we work pretty well together otherwise. Everybody understands how crucial they are on this team.

Q: What are some of your plans right now? And how did you figure out you wanted to work with this particular team?

A: As a technician, you often have to visit a lot of labs before you can figure out where you want to work and what you want to work with. For me, I just really liked the environment of this team and they are working on a pretty interesting experiment. I’m currently working on getting my PhD, which is another 4-5 year process, so it is going to take me a while, especially while I figure out my exact specialty for the PhD. I think I’m going to focus on something in Virology, but even there there are so many branches you can choose on. It’s almost like a never ending branch of tree roots.

Other Knowledge I acquired from the day:

• Everyone in the lab is either a PhD or a PhD student (these kids are still in their mid twenties!!)
• There are at least 40-50 people on a team from what I have gathered, and all of them have their own specialties- so if you have 5 chemists, they all have their own unique area of study/focus,
• Most labs are shared (the ones I’ve been to anyway), so it’s not uncommon to have a completely different company working with you on an unrelated experiment while you are in the lab too
• The rabbits are often separated into test groups by litter; there are about 12 litters currently being tested on
• some animals that were control or had no history of illness could end up being given away as pets after their litter is completed testing (depends on the animal too)