Week 8 - Placement 1

This week Derek brought me straight to the lab to work with Carol again. Derek informed me that himself and Carol had looked at the results yesterday and saw that the results didn't turn out as well as planned. So for today I would do the same as what I did last week, however on a much smaller scale and only analyse 28 samples of DNA at a time.


Carol had taken out the DNA from the freezer already so I didn't need to wait for them to defrost. This week I preformed all of my work on ice to prevent any of the DNA and mix from evaporating from the dish. The very same as last week, I made sure that all of the samples were mixed properly by flicking them and spinning them on a centrifuge machine.  I then pipetted 2 micro-liters of DNA into 28 wells on the dish. Once I completed this I made up the master mix and then pipetted 2 micro-liters of it into each hole. After, I set up the geno-typing machine that would be used to analyse the DNA. While I waited for the machine to finish analysing the DNA I read some more tutorials about different discoveries made in the genetic field.


After lunch I looked at the results produced by the geno-typing machine. Afterwards, I took the next 28 samples and prepared them for geno-typing just as I did earlier. I then set up the machine again to analyse the DNA and Carol would show me the results next week.

Person peparing the DNA for geno-typing

Derek then explained to me how I would be working with Sinéad next week in the neuropsychology department. I would use the results that I came up with today and Sinéad would show me the next step after geno-typing the DNA. However, if it turned out that my results aren't as good as we had hoped, we will use an old sample template instead. I look forward to next week and discovering the next part of the process.

Week 7 - Placement 1

This week Derek explained the project I would be working on over the course of the next 4 weeks. He took into consideration the areas which I found most interesting which were genotyping the DNA and look at neuropsychology. Derek then took me to the lab where I would be working with carol for the day.

In the Lab Carol explained how I would take 96 different samples and label them on an excel document and on a sheet. Then I would take a small sample of each individual sample and transfer them into a smaller container, using a pipette, which would be  used to analyse the DNA later in the day.

Different types of pipettes

Once I had finished labelling and moving the samples by myself, Carol showed me how to make up the master mix which is mixed with the DNA samples so that they can be read by the genotyping machine. Once I made this up, Carol taught me how to pipette 8 samples at a time. I first had to practise on water just to make sure I have the hang of it.

Pipetting 8 samples at one time

Once I had finished with this I sealed the dish and carol and I set up the genotyping machine up and made sure that everything matched the name of the sample that I labelled earlier. Just before I left Carol explained how she would hove to go and fine a mixing machine somewhere in the building in order to make sure that the mater mix was mixed in with the DNA samples. She would later activate the machine and would let it run for the 2 hours and then she would save the results and show them to me next week on work experience. 

Week 6 - Placement 1

This week Derek brought me to a completely different side of the centre. He introduced me to Sinead who actually works with the patients of schizophrenia who donate samples of their DNA to the lab to be used in research. 

Firstly I went with Sinead to a room in the library upstairs where she would show me some of the tests she gives on the patients. Sinead explained to me some of the sin tomes of schizophrenia patients. These include; pronunciation, short term memory, problem solving, remembering faces and emotional recognition of the face and eyes.

For the pronunciation test the patient is given a list of words to read and if it matches the correct pronunciation they are correct. For the short term memory test 2, 3, and 4 digit numbers flash up on  a computer screen really fast in a sequence. The patient then has to click the mouse when he/she see the same number repeated one after another. The emotional recognition test involved looking at just a picture of some-one’s eyes and saying what type of emotion they were feeling at that moment. For the problem solving test the patient is given nine blocks of plastic half white and half read. The patient then must make the shape or picture which is drawn on the card in front of them. 

After Sinead finished showing me all of the tested I went back to her office where she showed me some images from previous projects she had worked on to do with neuropsychology. She was able to highlight different parts of the brain and show me the connections between certain areas of the brain. This looked really interesting and I was really intercepted by it. 

An example of what the connections look like

Later I met with Omar another person who works in neuropsychology. However he works with patients who preform different tests while in an MRI scanner. While the patient is solving different problems in the scanner the machine is taking digital images of the person’s brain every few seconds. Omar showed me some of the test performed by some of the patients while in the MRI scanner. 

MRI Scanner

He also showed me which parts of the brain are active when answering and solving different problems. Once Omar has tested out at least 100 patients with schizophrenia and 100 patients without, he complies the images together to create one general image. He can then easily compare the images of the brain with the person of schizophrenia and the person without schizophrenia. 

This is what some of the scans can look like

I found today one of the most interesting days of my work experience so far. Although I wasn't completing a lot of practical work, I felt I defiantly learnt a great deal.