4/25/2017: Week 11 – Old Experiences and New Faces
Welcome back!
Because I was only in the lab for one day, and ranch duty is officially over, this post will be shorter than usual. However, even though it's short, I have some new things to cover, so I'll get right into it!
EASTER SURPRISE
Before I get to the lab, one very exciting thing I want to talk about. One of the mini horses gave birth! Maybe it was all the running around (read the last post), but on Sunday morning, she surprised everyone by giving birth even though all signs were showing otherwise the previous day. As you can imagine, the foal was very small! The mini horse is already the size of a large dog, and this little baby horse was only about the size of a cat! Imagine that! I wish I could've seen this cat-sized horse in person, but I do have an awesome picture:
Anyway, because of the surprise nature of the birth, Mr. Ames wasn't able to collect amniotic fluid from this one, but he caught it in time to collect amniotic membrane. I haven't actually seen it yet, but according to Dr. Barcelo, the amnion of mini horses is slightly thicker than normal, and I look forward to handling it on my own!
BACK TO THE LAB AGAIN
Monday was the first time we actually got to work in the new lab, now that the moving process was complete. It slipped my mind to get some pictures of the new lab space, so I'll make sure to have those in my next post (yes, there will be at least one more post). Unfortunately, we met with some bad news. Remember the sample products we sent in to be tested? Well, the StemWrap+ and the AniMatrix were perfectly fine (yay!), but the sample solution of AniMotion (which we haven't packed yet) showed signs of contamination, meaning our cell solution still isn't clean. On Monday, we took careful steps to wash the cells three more times, and are hoping this will be enough for them to pass all the necessary tests. The cells are arguably the hardest part to collect and clean, so we're keeping our fingers crossed. If the tests come back without issue, we can finally pack some AniMotion, but until then, we'll have to put product packing on pause.
Other than that, we spent some more time cutting and drying amnion. But the most interesting part of the day was spending time with the new AniCell intern. The new intern, a doctor of internal medicine, is quite unlike us high-schoolers. She joined our lab (starting Monday) to explore some opportunities outside her current job, and seems very excited to be working with us. It was great getting to talk to her and hear about her life experience. And occasionally, she even gave us some great suggestions that we've taken into account.
It wasn't exactly an intense week in the lab, but it was nice nonetheless. Let's hope those samples come back clean so we can pack AniMotion soon! Until next time!
Because I was only in the lab for one day, and ranch duty is officially over, this post will be shorter than usual. However, even though it's short, I have some new things to cover, so I'll get right into it!
EASTER SURPRISE
Before I get to the lab, one very exciting thing I want to talk about. One of the mini horses gave birth! Maybe it was all the running around (read the last post), but on Sunday morning, she surprised everyone by giving birth even though all signs were showing otherwise the previous day. As you can imagine, the foal was very small! The mini horse is already the size of a large dog, and this little baby horse was only about the size of a cat! Imagine that! I wish I could've seen this cat-sized horse in person, but I do have an awesome picture:
 |
| Adorable! |
Anyway, because of the surprise nature of the birth, Mr. Ames wasn't able to collect amniotic fluid from this one, but he caught it in time to collect amniotic membrane. I haven't actually seen it yet, but according to Dr. Barcelo, the amnion of mini horses is slightly thicker than normal, and I look forward to handling it on my own!
BACK TO THE LAB AGAIN
Monday was the first time we actually got to work in the new lab, now that the moving process was complete. It slipped my mind to get some pictures of the new lab space, so I'll make sure to have those in my next post (yes, there will be at least one more post). Unfortunately, we met with some bad news. Remember the sample products we sent in to be tested? Well, the StemWrap+ and the AniMatrix were perfectly fine (yay!), but the sample solution of AniMotion (which we haven't packed yet) showed signs of contamination, meaning our cell solution still isn't clean. On Monday, we took careful steps to wash the cells three more times, and are hoping this will be enough for them to pass all the necessary tests. The cells are arguably the hardest part to collect and clean, so we're keeping our fingers crossed. If the tests come back without issue, we can finally pack some AniMotion, but until then, we'll have to put product packing on pause.
Other than that, we spent some more time cutting and drying amnion. But the most interesting part of the day was spending time with the new AniCell intern. The new intern, a doctor of internal medicine, is quite unlike us high-schoolers. She joined our lab (starting Monday) to explore some opportunities outside her current job, and seems very excited to be working with us. It was great getting to talk to her and hear about her life experience. And occasionally, she even gave us some great suggestions that we've taken into account.
It wasn't exactly an intense week in the lab, but it was nice nonetheless. Let's hope those samples come back clean so we can pack AniMotion soon! Until next time!
Were you ever able to see a horse give birth?
ReplyDeleteYes, I was! Check out my Week 8 post for more information on the experience!
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