My Internship
My Life Health Science Internship
My internship is in Dr. Andrew Deane's paleobiology lab at the IU School of Medicine. My project analyzes the cusp proportions of maxillary and mandible molars of 3D scans taken of fossils from 19 extant species. I use Geomagic and ImageJ software to measure and record data revolving around the size of each molar as well as the length of each molar cusp. The measurements taken help us establish anatomical correlates with known diets that we can then use to predict fossil diets in fossil primates. Once we figure out what the fossil primates are eating, we can use that to reconstruct the paleo environments these fossil monkeys shared with fossil humans. This will help us better understand human paleo habitats.
I am also learning how to scan bones using Artec software in order to make 3D files available to medical students. I have learned a lot about anatomy through these two projects, as well as visiting and working in the cadaver lab. I believe that learning to compare primate and modern human anatomy will be a valuable skill that will help me along my path to becoming a doctor.
Successes and Challenges
During my time in Dr. Deane's lab, I have accomplished segmenting 500+ molars in Geomagic as well as organizing them by species, molar type, and location in an Excel spreadsheet. I am now in the second stage of the process which includes measuring the molar cusps of each tooth in ImageJ. The most challenging part of this process for me is keeping all of the information organized. This is stressful because if a molar is not aligned properly, for example it is not in the medial direction, it will throw all of the data off. This attention to detail can be overwhelming at times.
Skills I have developed through navigating this part of the data collection process is time management and organization. In order to have enough data in time for the semester to end, I've learned how to come into the lab and be productive so I am staying on track to have enough data before the internship ends. I've also learned the importance of organization. I learned this the hard way, and had to spend hours correcting file names. However, now I am very consistent and clear in how I organize data.