Fat and Bone- An Odd Couple
Throughout my few weeks at Nepean, I was involved in conducting a project about
bone lipotoxicity. The experiment focused on exploring the possibility of Vitamin D
as an external agent in inhibiting apoptosis of osteoblasts induced by palmitic acid in
vitro. As a pharmacy student without prior research experience, I must say that this
was a very interesting learning experience as I was being exposed to various lab
techniques that would never have been taught as part of my course, such as cell
culturing, Western blotting and Annexin staining.
Working in the lab taught me to be very meticulous with the materials and
techniques I employed as one event could lead to another and ultimately affecting
the final results of the experiment. At times mistakes were made and things did not
turned out as expected, but I learnt to persist and look at alternatives in order to
overcome situational problems, which was challenging in a way given that time was
a limiting factor. On the contrary, it was exciting to see things working out in the
right direction at the end. I can still remember the happiness in me when I finally
developed my very first Western blot image after several attempts of gel
preparation, electrophoresis etc.
I have learnt so much over my summer days; from having little idea of what research
was to being able to carry out an experiment independently, operate the
sophisticated flow cytometry machine and put together results for a scientific
presentation at the end. Of course, I would not have done this all without guidance
and support from Professor Duque, who supervised this project. Also, not forgetting
my mentors, Krishanthi and Dr Chris Vidal, who spent a lot time teaching me in the
lab, thank you so much. I am grateful for the opportunity to gain insight into what
medical research can be and truly admire the persistence and dedication
demonstrated by the researchers at Nepean.
Yu NIng