Mistakes
On Monday, I learned that the IHC test that we had set up on Thursday, had not turned out well. Something in the process had gone wrong and we did not get accurate readings. Apparently, this is a common issue with both Western Blot tests and IHC tests because there are so many steps that must all go exactly right in order to achieve an accurate reading. Monday was spent redoing the same process from last Thursday. Although the test did not work out, there was some good that came from it. On Tuesday I was able to take part in the day two process of IHC testing. The final product of IHC is a glass slide with extremely thin slices of tissue inside. This tissue is dyed in certain ways so that specific compounds will be visible under a microscope. It was my job to add the glue and secondary glass slides to the tissue samples. After I finished gluing the slides together, we let them sit for thirty minutes before looking at them.
Once the slides were ready, we compared them under a microscope. I learned how to read the results of IHC testing. Upon examination of the slides, the tissue effected by NASH had large lipid deposits throughout. This is unhealthy because the lipid deposits block the cellular pathways within the liver and do not allow metabolites to be processed correctly. During the IHC test, the transporter proteins within the liver samples were dyed brown. Under the microscope, these proteins were highly visible. The healthy samples display properly attached transporter proteins that allow the cells to metabolize medications. In the NASH samples the proteins were not connected to the cells. The proteins were bunched up in certain locations and unable to perform their function.
On Thursday, my On-site Advisor had a conference to attend and I was asked not to come to the lab. I used this time to read Bernice Zeldin Schacter’s book The New Medicines. I began learning about the process behind the research and development of new drugs. I found that there are many very extensive rounds of testing on both animals and humans. These tests are meant to ensure the safety of the consumer. Most drugs will only see the consumer market after 10 years of testing. Although the ethics of the pharmaceutical industry are often called into question, the testing process is very thorough and is meant to be as safe as possible.
Although we had to redo the IHC test at the beginning of the week, I have had a lot more hands-on experience and I am beginning to fully understand the research. I am not certain what next week holds but I can only assume that it will be full of new challenges and new knowledge.