Madison Easton

Title of Work: 

Development of cell cultures in land gasteropods (slugs)

Abstract:

During my year abroad, I worked in a laboratory of neurobiology, where I investigated the regenerative capabilities of slugs. My objective was to cultivate the slug cells and make them accessible to be experimented with. I did so with dissections and cellular dissociations every week. By the end, I had created a receipt to cultivate these cells. With these cultivated cells, we can learn about their DNA and their capacities for regeneration, with the hope of applying this to the human body. Linguistically, I could advance my fluidity through immersion in Spanish. Daily, I applied myself in conversations both formal and informal. With conversations among people of diverse backgrounds, I could listen to the differences in phonetics as well as vocabulary. One of the largest distinctions in Mexican Spanish is the acquisition of the final letter [s] in words such as "vectors". In the case of culture, I applied the thinking process of "saying yes to everything," and from this, I could experience different cultural things such as food, religious traditions, and levels of professionalism among different people. I felt as though I adapted easily to the culture, and I could compare it to the culture that I know from Arizona and the United States. This intercultural competence helped me to easily integrate with my host community, as I involved myself as much as possible. 

Title of Work (IGP Language):  

Desarollo de cultivo celular en gasterópodos terrestres (babosas)

Abstract (IGP Language):

Durante mi año de intercambio trabajé en un laboratorio de neurobiología, donde investigué los gasterópodos terrestres, las babosas. Mi objetivo era a buscar una manera de cultivar las células de las babosas y tener un cultivo disponible para experimentar. Yo lo hice con disecciones y disociaciones celulares semanales. Al final, hice una receta para cultivar estas células. Con estos cultivos podemos aprender sobre el ADN y sus capacidades de regeneración, con la esperanza a aplicar esto en partes del cuerpo humano. Lingüísticamente, pude lograr más fluidez con la inmersión en español. Diario tuve conversaciones de tipo formales e informales. Con conversaciones entre de personas diversas he podido escuchar las diferencias fonéticas y el léxico. Una de las diferencias más grandes del español mexicano es la retención de la letra final [s] en palabras como “vectores”. En el caso de cultura, pensé en una manera de “decir sí a todo” y de esto, he podido experimentar cosas diferentes culturales como la gastronomía, las tradiciones religiosas, y los niveles de profesionalidad entre personas diferentes. Siento que me adapté fácilmente a la cultura y pude compararla con la cultura que conozco en Arizona y en EE.UU. Esta competencia intercultural me ayudó a integrarme con mi comunidad anfitriona y a involucrarme tanto como fuera posible.

Elevator Pitch Video

Elevator Pitch Transcript: 

Hello, my name is Madison Easton, and I am in my 5th and final year here at NAU as a member of IGP in the Latin America cohort. I am studying Spanish and biological sciences with a minor in photojournalism and documentary studies.

I spent my year abroad in Mexico City as well as in the state of Querétaro. I studied at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, otherwise referred to as UNAM, and later transferred to their Juriquilla campus, where I had my internship in the Institute of Neurobiology. Under the guidance of Dr. Alfredo Varela in Varelabs, we investigated the regenerative properties of the land gastropods, the slugs. 

Slugs have the fascinating ability to regenerate their tails, eyes, and even segments of their "brain,” which are really just bundles of neurons called the ganglia. I was tasked with finding a way to cultivate three different types of cells within one of the three slugs in our colony, Deroceras laeve, the average garden slug. My project title is The Cellular Cultivation of Land Gasteropods: Slugs. With the cultivation of cells that are both healthy and free of bacteria, future researchers within the lab can experiment with them using RNAi vectors and recombinant DNA to find and read the segments of the slug’s DNA. With this information, we can hopefully discover the DNA that provides the slugs with their abundance of stem cells and find a way to implement these into parts of the human body, such as the heart or lungs.

Mexico was, to me, a very unique experience, mainly because it is so close to home, and growing up in Arizona, I was so often surrounded by Mexican culture. Despite the culture that I knew of, to really immerse myself in it and indulge myself in every aspect of it was incredible. The U.S. and Mexico have a lot of history together as well as current events, and I was able to have civil conversations with people with drastically different perspectives and opinions. Through this I was able to further develop my cultural understanding of both my own culture and the culture in Mexico. 

Before going abroad, I will admit that my Spanish level was not where I had hoped it would be. It was even so bad that UNAM denied me entry into the classes at the university. They sent me to learn Spanish in a side school called CEPE, or Centro de Enseñaza Para Extranjeros. Despite this, I was able to fully immerse myself in the language by speaking to my 10 Mexican roommates, meeting other foreign students from throughout Latin America, and simply going about my life at grocery stores, cafes, and the metro. In my second semester, I entered the laboratory and began to take classes, including a course on stem cells and a boxing course taught by a local lucha libre star. I also met other students with cold contact introductions, and from this, I was able to speak Spanish every single day, and by the end, I felt almost fluent.

If you are interested in finding out more about my time abroad feel free to hunt me down at the IGP summit.

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