My Internship

Cellular & Integrative Physiology

Under the mentorship of Dr. Alexander Obukhov

My intership is with the department of Cellular & Integrative Physiology at IUSM with Alexander Obukhov, Ph.D. . I chose it because the research interested me as it relates to my past and current coursework. We research endothelial dysfunction linked to atherosclerosis in mice by studying TRPC channels. The goal is to determine a direct mechanism for which TRPC channels influence atherosclerosis.

I contribute my to research team by presenting relevant research articles, dissect and isolate aortas from mice, perform isometric tension experiments to quantify levels of endothelial dysfunction in dissected tissues samples (with apparatus shown in picture above), analyze the results from experiments, and present them using graphing software and statistics.

I found dissection to be challenging at first due to the small scale of tissues used. Needing to have steady hands, I gained great patience with myself in recognizing my limitations. Nonetheless, I was able to improve significantly with practice.

I find I am successful in performing isometric tension experiments since I am comfortable preparing and applying the correct solutions at the appropriate times.

Model Isometric Tension Recordings

Using Aorta Tissue Samples

  1. KCl is added to the bath to "warm up" the aorta sample (i.e. begin its contractions)
  2. P.E. induces a strong contracting response until a plateu is reached
  3. ACh treatment is applied, which induces dilutions
  4. SNP is added to normalize P.E. responses