Jenny Deng-Dr. Spector-Week 8: Final Week + Final Research Experiment Attempt

This week's didactic meeting consisted of a PIP Joint Contracture presentation and Indications Conference for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. An interesting case consisted of a patient who received help from the emergency department to repair a glass-shard injury to the third digit. The patient lost some mobility of the digit. A Z-plasty was performed in a follow-up surgery, allowing the patient to regain full joint mobility.

Finally, I was attempting to actualize my proposed experiment for a biomimetic breast microenvironment platform that consists of a tumor spheroid, biomimetic/plain collagen layer, and endothelial cell layer. Breast tissue was isolated and everything was prepared for plating. However, upon attempting to plate spheroid-in-collagen solutions into a 96-well plate, I discovered the formation of the meniscus kept pushing the spheroids into the walls of the well, making them unviable for analysis. Troubleshooting this in a second attempt showed that technique in pipetting the solution into a well was essential to centering the solution. In the future, these findings and experiments can be utilized and further refined by Dr. Spector's group. 

This summer immersion has been a wonderful experience. It has been a rare opportunity to be able to stand in the operating room, to see patients with Dr. Spector, and work with the medical students in his lab. It has been an incredible learning experience to see how so many different teams work together to improve patients' health. Undoubtedly, this has been an unforgettable experience.



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