I worked for the Stanley Division of Development Neurovirology as a Stanley Summer Scholar. We do research on Schizophrenia. My research (basically) was on Toxoplasma gondii and the effects it has on the female mouse brain, and then related that back to Scizophrenia. It's really fascinating. Ask me about it sometime if you would like to learn more :) This photograph is me with Dr. Yolken, the director of the Stanley Division at Johns Hopkins. He was the one who hired me and the one that I had connections through to get my job here in the first place.
Me, Dr. Yolken, and John
This is Ann. She works as the financial person for the Stanley Divison. She really LOVES the Baltimore sports teams, and her office is decked out in Ravens and Orioles decor. Her favorite picture is the one above us of one of the Ravens players.
This is my entire lab group. We all went out to lunch on my last day. First is John. He is the other student that I worked with through the Stanley Division that I spent most of my time with as well. He is super awesome. Next is Steve. He just got hired like a week ago to run the Behavioral Core for the mouse facility. Then Jun. He's a post-doc in the lab. Next is Sofya. She is Bagrat's sister. Bagrat works in the lab as well, but wasn't at work that day. Bagrat's a post-doc. They are from Armenia. Then me. Next is Geetha. She is a grad student, and was my mentor for the summer. I worked on her research project, and she taught me all the new techniques that I learned over the course of the summer. Then Xia (pronounced like "Shaw"). She's a lab tech. She can get anything (esp. PCR) in the lab to run perfectly when anyone else in the lab is having troubles. She has the magic touch that no one else has. Then Dr. Pletnikov (Misha), my PI (principal investigator). He's the head of the lab. And the best PI on the planet.
Me and Xia! Xia's desk was right behind mine. Xia was gone on vacation for two weeks, and I missed her so much! I always loved being able to talk to her. I always told her that she was like the mom of the lab because she is always taking care of everyone and cleaning up the lab space.
Me and Jun! Like I've said before, Jun is by far the smartest person I've ever known. He was ALWAYS in the lab. I LITERALLY don't think there was ever ONE time that I was in the lab that he wasn't. Including some random times that I went in on some Saturdays, or days that I stayed extra late. He lives in the lab. Juns desk was right by my desk, so I always got to talk to him, and he's always so willing to help when I had a question about anything. I'm probably going to miss Jun more than anyone else. He always has great music playing too, so there is never a dull moment in the laboratory!
My PI, Dr. Pletnikov. He's from Russia. He is so nice, and is really the best PI I could have asked for this summer. He is so kind and patient, and was willing to work with me and teach me everything that I needed to know.
Me and Geetha! Geetha. is. awesome. I really don't know how I lucked out in working with such amazing people, but I really did. Geetha taught me most of what I learned this summer. It was really fun to work with her because she's a grad student, and she knows how to teach really well (as in, she's not some old, uptight, foreign person who is hard to understand and is anti-social and is hard to work with). I really love Geetha so much!!
Me and John! Here we are next to the microtome (which is where we cut mouse brains). John was, by far, the best student I could have asked to work with. John was 1) super nice 2) really smart 3) helpful 4) fun to be around. John and I did most of our work together. Geetha would normally show us how to do something, and then John and I would practice over and over for hours and hours. So we would spend lots of time together. He probably knows more about me than he should. But we had lots of fun together.
Next to our favorite spot in the lab...
The perfusion hood!!
This is my desk space at the lab. Not very big, but it's what I got. I had to take my laptop with me to work everyday. The computer behind me didn't have internet hooked up to it, and I had to do research frequently on the internet.
That's pretty much it...and I'm done with work! It feels soo good to be done finally! I felt like near the end (when I was preparing my presentation) the days of work would drag on. Looking back to the first day of work though, it seriously went by so fast! The internship was a great opportunity. I was truly blessed with this chance to come out to Baltimore to research at Johns Hopkins University.
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