On Thursday morning I gave my presentation on my
encapsulation project. Overall, the presentation went very well, but after
discussing my research with Professor Xu, I will be taking my research in a
different direction. I will not be testing Avastin because this is a very
expensive drug to buy, and it would be difficult to finish the necessary
experiments in the time I have left (which is about 2 months now, I can’t
believe I have already been here for about a month!). Instead I will be
studying the release profile of microbubbles. This research will be closely
related to Yuan Shuai’s work, and therefore can have a larger impact.
To determine the release profile of a microbubble, I will be
encapsulating Rhodamine in a PLGA bubble. Rhodamine is a toxic chemical that
has fluorescent properties, which makes it easy to image. The concentration
profile of the microbubbles will tell us how long the microbubbles can sustain
release of Rhodamine. If a drug is administered without encapsulation, there should
be a large spike in concentration of the drug, and then a quick decrease in
concentration as the body filters out the drug. The goal for microencapsulation
is to have a gradual increase in the concentration of Rhodamine, and then to
level out a certain concentration for an extended period of time.
The rest Thursday afternoon was spent working on my
presentation of chapters 5 and 6 of the book Essentials of Writing Biomedical Research Papers. Chapters 5 and 6
are about the Materials and Methods and Results section of a research paper.
After going on a run in the evening, I got a text from He
Yutong inviting me to get “toast” with her and her lab group. Professor Xu’s
lab is broken into 3 sections so He Yutong is in a different section of
Professor Xu’s lab. Since the lab groups are right next to one another, I still
see the people from this lab a lot! He Yutong explained to me that toast is
like barbeque food. We met at the gate of the campus, and right outside there
were a bunch of people sitting and eating at tables set up alongside the road.
We had a large group of 11 people around a table, and ordered a bunch of food.
It was pretty spicy, but absolutely delicious. We also all shared a few bottles
of beer. Wengi explained to me that it is a custom in China for everyone to
make a toast to an honored guest and to drink with them. When tapping glasses,
the person making the toast always has their cup below the honored guest.
During this dinner, the other people referred to me as the “customer”. This
made me laugh because they used that word because I was the one recipient of
the customs. Everyone went around the table and made a toast with me. Some of the people were not able to speak
English very well, so they would just say “It is nice to meet you”. I had so much fun at this dinner because I
learned a lot about the other members of the lab. Especially about what NBA
basketball teams they liked!
Above is a photo of the “toast” in Thursday night! Most of
the students in the lab are men. I have heard that the ratio of men to women at
the school is 9 to 1. I have only met 3 other girls in the lab, but I can’t
count the number of boys!
Above is a photo of He Yutong and me from the toast. She has
her eyes closed, but I wanted to put a photo of her up because she was not in
the other 2.
On Friday, I spent the morning finishing my presentation,
returning emails, and doing more research to learn more about my new
microencapsulation project. After lunch I had the opportunity to talk to
Professor Xu about my projects. Professor Xu is leaving soon to go back to Ohio
State University, so I want to make sure that I am prepared to work
independently after he leaves. We discussed how to test the release profile of
the drugs from the microspheres, and how to develop a protocol for this
experiment. We also discussed how the eye model needs to be 3D Printed instead
of made my PDMS. Though PDMS is a better material, the model will have more
details that need to be created by a 3D printer. I will have to find a new 3D
printing material that has better properties than the current material. I am
excited to get started on this work!
After the meeting, I gave my presentation on writing
research papers. I thought that the meeting went very well! I had more
participation from the other students in the lab this week. It has been great
to get some more experience with public speaking. Generally when I give
presentations I get very nervous and I talk fast. I think this experience has
helped me practice slowing down and speaking clearly.
On Friday afternoon, Professor Xu and Dr. Si took all the
students from our lab to another very nice dinner. Professor Xu asked everyone
to translate the names of the dishes into something that sounds appetizing
because some of the dishes have unusual names.
Despite the effort, I was still introduced to dishes that were called
Beggars chicken, stinky fish, stinky tofu, and 1000 year eggs. Professor Xu
explained to me that the 1000 year egg is a preserved bird’s egg, and that it
was on a television show for being one of the world most disgusting foods.
Below is a photo of the 1000 year egg. Though it looked pretty gross, it was
pretty good!
Below are a couple more photos from dinner. Dr. Si took a
large group photo on his phone, so I am hoping I can get this from him to post
next week!
After dinner I went back to the lab for a little bit with
the rest of the students. On Friday nights the other students will play video
games if they don’t have a lot of work to accomplish. After a while I left to
buy a candy bar and watch a movie back in my room. Of the things I miss most from
home, other than my family and friends, chocolate desserts are definitely one
of them.
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