With week two done, Williams Lab is starting to get into a great rhythm!

Everyone has started to figure out their schedules with classes and other activities and are finding the time to make progress on their projects.
Jacob started learning the basics of imaging and dosing this week using AB3’s and Nfe2 knock out lines. Unlike Maddie’s work which only needs a four hour acute dose, Jacob must dose his embryos all day to achieve a chronic dose and be able to observe the charges in the morphology over time. Quang continues to sort through and annotate his data so he can begin testing his findings in the lab (which will hopefully be very soon!). Alex is in the final push to fine tune the procedure! She made some new primers for the house-keeping gene she uses in qPCR to hopefully get more accurate CT values. Hopefully next week this adjustment can be added and get her one step closer to finishing the ChIP project!

I got back into imaging last and this week to finish up research began in the summer. Images had been collected using the confocal microscope of control and tBOOH dosed Brn3c zebrafish to observe the effects of oxidative stress on the inner ear hair cells called neuromasts. The images were taken at 48, 72, and 96 hours post fertilization. This week I finished collecting for 48 hours and was able to add five more images to the 96 hour data set. I also was able to look at scanning electron microscope samples that had been prepared at the end of June. Unfortunately, the tissue had been damaged at some point along the way and new samples need to made. However, it was still a good reminder of how to use the instrument.

As we come to week three Alex, Quang, and I will also be preparing to present their summer work at the poster session during Back to Bates weekend! This will be great practice for later presentations and potential conferences the group may go to