Unexpected Roadblock

After picturing my spheroids yesterday(April 4), I realized something was wrong. After presenting the photos to one of my supervisors, Ruben Munoz. He said that there was fibers from the pipette filters in my cell wells. Apparently, these fibers make the spheres unusable. So, I'll have to seed new spheres later. I've basically dug myself into a hole & now I have to dig myself out.

New Spheroids

My mentor, Pawan, is out of town for a conference in DC. So, the SeaHorse project may be delayed yet further. For Monday, which is when I'm writing this, I will be making a new set of spheroids. When he comes back, I should begin the SeaHorse with him. I practiced moving cell spheres into SeaHorse plates earlier, and from the looks of it, on all but one, I got it right. However, I would need to check with Pawan to make sure.

Just Keepin it Going

So, I didn't really make any progress last week(week of March 13) due to a college interview in Florida, but I did successfully cultivate more cancer cell spheroids. These have grown as normal, and we are tracking their growth as their size increases. Again, the SeaHorse project, which measures metabolic processes, is delayed, because of TGen schedules, but is scheduled to begin next week. As the SeaHorse project begins, I will give more detailed updates as to how it works.

Steps in the Right Direction

For the first time last week, I have developed spheroids on my own. Now, we are going to measure their size changes over time. This is also a difficult process, involving a process called ImageJ, which I will need to learn separately. Analysis of spheroids is the purpose of this project, and Dr. Noel is showing me new ways in which to analyze them. Size analysis is considered an experiment of its own, because we are retrieving data we never found before. The use of the SeaHorse machine, which measures metabolic processes of these cells, is currently delayed because of scheduling issues here at TGen, but will be done shortly. Cell maintenance (e.g. splitting) is continuing as normal. So far, the project as a whole is making good progress and I will see what direction it takes as it develops in the future.

Progress...well sort of

Normal progress this week was stifled because of my own errors. I was supposed to create new spheroids on the past Monday, but I over-diluted my cells, meaning I had to wait until this Thursday to create the new spheroids. During the week, I pictured the old cells, and watched them grow. Over time, the cells have grown into more of a sphere shape, as they should. I will learn how to take the length measurements of them soon. As mentioned in the previous post, drug experimentation will take place later. For now, the focus is on developing new spheroids succesfully.

Just the Beginning

So far, I have gotten to the point of creating the spheroids of the pancreatic cancer cells. Creating the spheroids is in and of itself the beginning of the process, but a process of its own. After the spheroids are created, we will test certain drugs on the cells. The specific drugs are to be decided, although the one certain drug is Triptolide, which is believed to inhibit cell growth. That is the direction of the project in the future, but for now, the focus is on growing the spheroids. These spheroids must be grown carefully using the sterile technique in order to prevent contamination, but once this arduous process is completed, we will move on to the drug testing.

Abstract/Project Beginning

Scientists can use 3-D models of pancreatic cancer cells to understand the ways in which they work and interact with surroundings. This experiment starts off with the development of spheroids, which are the above-mentioned models. After these spheroids are developed, the project can go in many different directions. The current plan is to experiment on the metabolic pathways. Pancreatic cancer cells tend to do glycolysis. So, the experiment will definitely attempt to check how their glycolysis can be altered. However, there is also potential for drug testing. Certain drugs can be tested, and how these drugs affect the cells can be measured.