Final Presentation

This summer research experience has been eye opening since day one. I found myself eager to investigate the links associated between cancer and pesticide exposure here in the central valley. At first I thought it would be simple to find data bases that would provide me with data specific to our counties in the San Joaquin Valley and I could correlate these to the pesticide usage per country. However, I learned that it was not as simple to work with this population and I could only imagine how difficult it is to work with farmworkers, specially migrant farmworkers who are constantly migrating in our state. Interesting findings I found stated a higher incidence of prostate cancer by 14% among licensed restricted use pesticide applicators than for other men in North Carolina and Iowa in specific those being exposed to methyl bromide. The Agriculture Health Study, also identified pesticides that presented a positive relationship with cancer. These studies all suggested further investigation due to many limitations in the study. I then looked at the residential proximity and the incidence of breast cancer but the studies I encountered found no evidence that women living in area of recent high agriculture pesticide presented higher breast cancer incidence rates. Limitations to these studies stated that pre-existing historical data on agricultural pesticide use in conjunction with data on residential histories for those with or at risk of cancer were not available or easy to collect.

Not being able to directly find a link between pesticide exposure and cancer due to the limitations when looking at this population of farmworkers and not having the data to work with sparked a greater interest in me in this area of research. I came across a literature search which focused on the acute pesticide illnesses associated with off target pesticide drift from agricultural applications and I could easily relate to the study because I come from a migrant farmworking family and my parents themselves have presented acute pesticide illnesses due to the pesticide exposure through their job occupation. Headaches, rashes, dizziness are some of the symptoms my parents have complained about after coming home from a long day of work out in the fields; this literature search identified children at higher risk for non-occupational exposure which lead me to my last research study, the C.H.A.M.A.C.O.S. study.

This longitudinal birth cohort study examines pesticide chemicals and other environmental factors that affect children's growth and developmental health. Although it is a recent and small cohort study which began enrolling children in 1999-2000 I find it a potential future population study that can grow and provide cancer incidence rates and data on other health complications among these children who have been exposed to pesticides since before they were born. The study also shows a disparity observed among farmworkers and their family which are at higher exposure to pesticides which results in various health complications.

All in all, this experience has reassured my passion for research in specific to research among the latino farmworkers population. I hope to continue to be involved in research that focuses on the pesticide exposure among farmworkers and the disparities among this group of individuals. I admire and respect the work of researchers because even though I did not find any great discovery through my work I was able to observe the team work among all research studies which contribute in their own way to the bigger picture of identifying potential carcinogens and health disparities. There are so many factors to consider and take into account before making any correlation between data that is acquired and that is something I have profoundly learned and still need further guidance with. I am thankful for this opportunity to be a part of this years Cancer Research Scholars which has exposed me to a possible future career in research available after my undergraduate education.

Week 7

It's crazy how quickly the time passed. I feel like it was just yesterday that we moved in and got our lab assignments.

This past week was pretty productive. We completed a couple western blots with which I feel pretty comfortable. Dieter has also taught me a couple of new techniques and procedures. We did a DNA extraction from the yeast cells and were able to run a pcr (comfortable with that too) from it. He also showed me how to run digests for different things. The first was a DNA digest where we verified that certain plasmids were correct. Second was the protein digest. He had some GFP and wanted to verify that it was in each sample.

On Friday, we went to Blue Water Seafood Market & Grill. I had eaten there with Alex last year, and the food was equally good this time. I definitely recommend it for the group next year.

The end and final presentations are coming up quickly. School is also just around the corner. We'll see how I deal with the return to the Fresno heat.

Week 7

This week, we were able to figure out an idea of why we were not seeing binding in PR3 :) in a Dot Blot. We went ahead and tested our idea and finally were able to get PR3 binding in a Dot Blot :) Aside from Dot Blots, this week we got to prepare for the Proximity Ligation Assay by doing cytochemistry with mouse neutrophils. Next week we will be continuing with this and hopefully have a PLA done in time for our final presentation. Aside from lab work, this week the Salvesen lab had their annual beach party (very fun and relaxing). I had a delicious California burrito made of carne asada with french fries and sour cream :)

Week 6

This was a very busy week, we repeated many Dot Blots. We troubleshoot by changing the protein and probe concentrations and we still were not happy with our results. We had a spotty background, or fluorescence where we did not want to have a signal. Finally we left for the weekend with a good Dot Blot that had the signal where there needed to be one for HNE. However we still saw no binding of probe in PR3 :( in a Dot Blot, but there was PR3 and probe binding in a Western Blot.

week 6

We spent the 6 week performing mostly dot blots in order to determine the correct concentration of probe to use in the Pla assay. We also spent part of week trouble shooting because we were getting mixed results from our dot blots when using different concentrations of enzyme. We ran two Dot Blots in order to test if our concentrations were correct and to see if washing the nitrocellulose membrane in the Dot Blot apparatus had an effect on fluorescence. After developing our membrane we determine that washing the membrane in the Dot Blot apparatus was decreasing the intensity of the fluorescence. Once we knew that our dilutions were correct, we needed to come up with an explanation as to why we were seeing different results for our Dot Blots and Western Blot when using the same concentration of enzyme. This problem will be tested next week, and we will also get started on our Pla assays.

My Experience as an Intern Week 6

     Yay! The NMR was finally fixed, Jose and I had the opportunity to shadow Elisa during both the sample prep and the NMR screening. The only downside was that the sample changer was still not working and Elisa had to go and manually change the sample every 30 min.
     It was an incredible experience to be inside an NMR facility. These machines are huge. It is not a great scenery but the excitement comes from knowing how powerful this piece of equipment is. It has the capability of giving you information bits of the chemical components to build the map of protein and identify what shifts the peptide has generated by binding to the protein.
      Most of our week was centered in protein expression and purification and NMR specrtra analysis. Jose and I scanned all of the 76 spectras in four days. More detail about this and the steps to follow will be provided in the presentation this week. At the end of week 6 we had the fantastic news that the sample changer was fixed and is know working beautifully.

Week 6

     This week, we returned to a sense of normalcy. Judith helped us immensely, and we ran western blots, a couple PCRs, and polysomes. Since we didnt get any results from our western blots last week (we now realize it was due to technique error), we carefully reran the ssa2 (24hr on, 1 hr recover) blot. the images we developed were good and conclusive. Unfortunately, we flubbed the transfer for the sks2 membranes since no one set a timer. We will rerun the blot on Monday.
     The polysomes were not conclusive. We used the 24hr on +5hr recovery ( switching from EMM to YES media) samples. The profiles did not reveal a rescue effect, so we will run western blots to see if there was enough of the protein expressed.

This Friday, we went out for dinner. Pizza on Pearl is an Italian restaurant that I had previously visited. We split a pizza which was a welcome break from cooking. On Saturday, I went exploring in the area surrounding the campus. We had some old bread, so I was looking for some seagulls (and birds really) to feed. I must have walked about 4 miles looking for some birds. I went all the way out to the glider port but decided that the 2 mile hike down to the beach was a bit too far just to feed birds. When I came back, I walked around the Eleanor Roosevelt College (ERC)  campus and found a bird by a dumpster. After feeding it a piece, it decided to fly off. Instead of chasing after the bird, I left the remaining bread on the ground by a dumpster, so the bird could return and eat it.

This weekend has been particularly windy, and there have been numerous people flying in gliders and hot air balloons. There is a great view of both from the apartment.


That's all for now. Im looking forward to the presentations this Friday. I will check-in in a week's time.