So the results are out! We came in 2nd!! WOOHOO! *cheers all around*
Although it was quite a pity that we came in 2nd, we are still very grateful for all the likes, comments, shares, views and support we got from everyone. Not only from Singapore, but from all around the world! We have viewers from USA, Japan, Germany, Denmark, S. Korea, Russia, Malaysia, UK and Israel. There are many more viewers out there! Thank you everybody for your support!
We are Biomaterials 2 in case you don't know. The overall winner is the Sports group and you can view the other blogs by clicking on the links under the side bar named "Still Hungry for More?" (keep scrolling down, you will see on the right, under the calender)
We are pretty glad that we got something in each category. We were also pretty surprised that we got 3rd in the highest number of likes, most commented and most visited sections. All of these cannot be achieved without your support. The last category, professional judging, is decided by a group of judges who actually spent the time to read this blog. So thank you judges for spending the time and we hope that you have enjoyed reading it as much as we did writing it. Also thank you to our mentors for showing us so many interesting things, if not we wouldn't have anything to blog about.
The point is, THANK YOU EVERYONE!
Side note: We received the results earlier this month, but didn't have time to blog about it because we were pretty busy with the new year. We are sorry for the last post. And also, talking about the new year, we wish everyone a happy (very belated) new year! We wish you all the best for 2013! May it be a good year for all of us!
Hey yo! So today is the last day of the research shadowing programme. I am both sad and happy, sad that it is ending but happy that I don't have to wake up early anymore. HAHA. I felt that this programme was great and really fun. It is an once-in-a-lifetime sort of thing and I am sure I would miss the time I spent in NTU with Yuh Harn and Alethea.
I am really glad that I joined this programme, although it was kinda lonely at first because I was the only one from my school. But I soon became friends with Yuh Harn and Alethea and had a great time talking to them and doing the blog together. I also got to know my mentors, Hui Kian, Ajay, Dr Wen Feng, Huaqiong, Ivan and Prof Tan. Also not forgetting the guys in the SBS lab. XD I would like to thank my mentors and everyone else who have been part of this one way or another. Thank you for your mentorship, patience and guidance as well as taking the time to be with us in your very bust schedules. This have been a memorable experience and I will always remember it and miss them.
This programme gave me a first hand experience of how it is like to be a researcher, which is one of future occupations I have in mind now. Along the way, I realise that researchers must have good time management. Often, there are long waiting times and they must plan their time carefully in order to maximise their day and get things done in time. Also researching is often independent work, although there are still teams. So it really is a self-motivating career and the best way to stay motivated is to have a passion for what you do. (To Mingjie and Ivan: Don't say I didn't listen to you.) There are still deadlines, paperwork and stress in research, as with any other jobs. But if we love what we do, I believe everyday would be a happy day for you.
I have never really considered research as my career because I planned on going to medicine before. So this entire programme taught me to keep my options open. It is good that I have an end in mind, but along the way I should also consider other possible career options as well. The whole point of this programme is to learn new things and I think I truly did. I saw and experienced things that a normal JC student would not be able to experience in the mere 2 years. So to anyone out there who are offered an internship or is considering to join one, I strongly recommend you to accept the offer. It shows you a lot more of things that you would normally not see while studying. It also allows you to try out the different jobs available so you can get a rough idea of what you would like to work as. Saying this, I remember my time here at NTU and continue to take up more internships (if possible) and continue on my quest to learn more and see more. After all, there is no end to the sights and sounds of the world right?
The programme has finally come to an end, i for sure will miss coming to the labs even though i hate waking up early to travel. The whole shadowing programme has been really fun and enriching, being a JC2 student, i feel as though all the content in our syllabus has been brought to life. We get to see how things are done and the hands-on are invaluable experiences. I will never forget them and hopefully i will get to work in a lab in the future. There are precautions to take note of, it is serious matter and though it isn't exactly the easiest thing to execute, but i think it has broaden my perspective of lab work. Extremly glad to have this opportunity to be in this programme. I wanna thank all the mentors for offering their guidance and patience in explaining everything to us, A/P Tan LP for giving us students the chance to see how these researchers work and my school AJC for providing us with the opportunity to attend it. I wish all researchers all the best in their field of work, it's definitely a passion-driven work, not easy but somehow self-fulfilling. So... Till the next time~ Goodbye~
Today is a really short day but nonetheless, it was still a fun day! Huaqiong, our next mentor, showed us how to use the scanning electron microscope. Before using it, we had to prepare our scaffolds so that they will be conductive.
Placed our scaffolds on the SEM holder with carbon tape, some of them were facing up, some down.
Placed it in a sputter coater. We couldn't do it in one go as the temperature generated might melt the polymer. So we did in twice for 40 seconds each time. WE ARE COATING THEM IN GOLD! Under low vacuum, the gas molecules are ionised by electrical field and positive ions are attracted to the gold target held at negative bias, the gold atoms will be sputtered out and deposited on the sample surface.
The SEM holder with the scaffold samples. It is taped to carbon tape. Apparently, there are silver tapes and other kinds as well.
This is the sputter coater. They are different kinds, some coats the sample with carbon, others with gold. This one coats gold.
Operation manual
How to determine the thickness of the coating.
Before
After (it doesn't look very gold-ish)
After preparation, we could finally use the SEM. Usually, we are looking at secondary and backscattered electrons to determine the topography and composition of the scaffold respectively. For the secondary electrons image, we see our cells in 3D! Some of them are stuck in the midst of mitosis.
SEM. Sorry for the bad quality, it was taken in the dark and Karmen didn't want to scare the others by turning on the flash.
BTW the SEM is kept in a dark and cold room. Dark because light might affect the quality of the images. Cold because large amounts of energy is released when the electron beam is released. So liquid nitrogen is also used to cool the microscope lens to protect it from any harm.
The stage of the SEM. It is sealed by vacuum.
How to use the SEM. We got to try to use it. Karmen sucked at using it. HAHA.
All the images we took. SO COOL! ><
The scaffold here is the one we used electrospinning to make on Day 2. So there are aligned.
The fibres here looks flat because the scaffold was subjected to heat treatment. So the fibres melted.
These are scaffolds with no cells on it.
Fibroblast attached to the scaffold. Fibroblast is spindle-shaped when attached.
We are guessing that the two cells are undergoing mitosis. They are already dead though.
These are fibroblast that are attached to the scaffold.
SO CUTE! Huaqiong says it looks like ice cream. HEHE.
So today is really really short and hence we don't have much to share. But we will be posting our reflections and thoughts of the entire programme.
With this last post, we have come to the end of our research shadowing programme. We are really grateful to all the people who were involved in this. Thank you for organising this programme! Thank you for spending time with us! Thank you for your patience! Thank you for your mentorship and guidance! Thank you for sharing with us! We have a lot to say thank you for. We will always remember the time we spent here in NTU (both MSE and SBS). We have enjoyed sharing with all of your readers and we are also grateful for your support! We will see you again sometime and we wish all of you people out there all the best and a merry christmas!
Hello! This is Alethea. This is going to be my last post and last reflection. Although it was a short 2 weeks in NTU MSE, I think that it was a very enriching experience that I would always remember. I have met new people who have a lot of passion for the work that they are doing. I had learnt new methods and concepts that would help me to better understand my studies. I also saw animals (rats and mice) and new machines that are not found in my school lab. All of the memories that I had in NTU MSE, I would never forget them. I am grateful for the friends that I had made, Yuh Harn and Karmen, for having to endure my nonsense and weird moments. I am thankful that they were in my group, cause they were really great people! I also have to thank the mentors that we had over the past 2 weeks (Hui Kian, Ajay, Ivan, Dr Wen Feng and Huaqiong). They have a lot of passion, patience and interest in their work. I would always remember the numerous talks that the mentors gave. It gave me an insight to how university life would be like and make me think about what I want to be in the future. I would also like to thank my school for providing this opportunity to join this amazing programme! This programme made me realise that there are different aspects of science that you can research on (Material engineering, chemical engineering etc.) But, they are all interlinked with each other. You would need to have some knowledge of physics, biology and chemistry to use the methods and the machines for the project. I find that each subject is equally important for any science research. I also realise that any job we choose would have its own difficulties. It does not mean that one job is easier than the other. It all just depends on whether you have the passion and drive for this specific job. I would definitely miss the people that I had met and the places that I had been to. SO, in conclusion (lol), do find out which areas you are interested in and try out the many attachments available. Haha, good bye! :p
P.S i typed this today as i would be flying off tonight and i won't be here tmr.
HI! We are back again, to continue with what we left off ytd as well as continue with some new techniques. We did PCM, plasma treatment for some polymer film, went to the animal house (RATS!! and mice too) and SEM preparation!
PCM isn't a complex procedure. All we did was view the cells that we cultured yesterday and take a picture of it using a programme in the computer. It is a great way of storing images of cells.
The picture of the fibroblast. This is taken using a light microscope. Tomorrow we would be using an electron microscope.
We moved on to plasma treatment for polymer film.The purpose is to change the polymer film from hydrophobic to hydrophilic nature using plasma treatment. There are various ways of doing it and we are using vacuum to do this. Dr Wen Feng shared that in some cases, this process can take up half a day because there was a lot of waiting time. For example, if a different gas is used from the previous one, we would have to wait for all of the gas to be removed from the chamber.
We picked out some pre-prepared glass slips with a thin film of polymer on it.
We used this machine to do the plasma treatment. The mechanics are pretty complicated, something like different voltahe between the metal plates.
Before we did the actual treatment, we did some trial runs in the plasma surface treatment machine. We first ran argon into the machine, due to the splitting of molecules, the energy used correspond to the visible light spectrum and a pretty pink colour was observed in the vacuum container. Then the argon gas was removed using a vacuum and replaced with oxygen gas. A white colour was observed instead. Some bits of pink can still be observed because some argon gas is left.
For the actual runs, we placed the glass slips into the vacuum container, ran argon into it for about a minute. Although it is supposed to be pink, it looks a bit purple-ish. This is because not all the oxygen gas was removed from the trial runs. A layer (not really visible) of plasma was formed.
We tested the nature by placing a drop of water on it and the water would spread out. The control cover slips reamined hydrophobic and the same drop of water did not spread out. Hence, this proves that the nature of cover slips was changed from hydrophobic to hydrophilic.
To have a more accurate result, we could do a WCA test to test the angle of the water on the surface. A smaller angle would mean more hydrophilic as the water would spread. Although we didn't get to do the test, we observed someone else doing it.
Glass cover slips with a thin layer of polymer. We had fun taking them out. HEHE
Plasma surface treatment machine
The different gases used for the plasma treatment. We are using argon gas and oxygen gas.
Before
After argon gas is added
After oxygen gas is added
We used argon in the actual treatment. It looks a little purple-ish though.
Testing the nature of the cover slips with a drop of deionised water.
The control remains hydrophobic.
After treatment, it becomes hydrophilic. (The drop of water spreads out!)
This is actually a product video, it doesn't show the full process. But it shows the before and after of this procedure. Start from 0:11.
This is the WCA test.
And so we went to the ANIMAL HOUSE. Probably the highlight of the day. A lot of caution is taken before entering the place. We had to put on mask, hair cap, surgical gown, shoe covers and gloves. Also, in general, only people with the license are allowed to interact with the animals in the house. We saw mice and rats. The mice looked like grey hamster except they have slightly bigger ears and a much longer tail. Dr. Wen Feng anathesise a big fat rat (RAT, not mouse) for about 3 mins. The rat was about one and half hands long and had RED eyes (so rats with gleaming red eyes do exist). The rat kinda fainted and electrodes were fixed to the limbs to measure the heartbeat using a ECG machine. We spent only a short time inside and we spent more time outside wearing all the necessary things (mask, hair cap, surgical gown, shoe covers and gloves). Being our first time in an animal house, it was definitely a cool experience. We didn't see any being operated on, that would have been pretty gruesome. But the rat Dr Wen Feng worked apparently went through a heart surgery before. We couldn't take pictures of the procedure, but here is picture of the rats in one of the holding rooms. They live a pretty cosy life.
(We saw test tubes with the hearts of the rats.... We are not going to post pictures.)
A lot of things need to be put on.
Lab rats.
After lunch, we came back to start on the preparation for the scanning electron microscope (SEM) we are going to use tomorrow.
After removing the culture medium from the culture plate we incubated earlier, we washed it with PBS.
2.5% glutaraldehyde (GA) is added to fix the cells and left for an hour in room temperature. Actually, if you realised, we have used a variety of different chemicals for cell fixation. Ajay used paraformaldehyde with triton, while Ivan used ethanol. GA is also another chemical we can use for cell fixation.
Ethanol of increasing concentration is added with 10mins intervals. After 10mins, the previous ethanol solution is removed and replaced with another ethanol solution of increasing concentration. 50% ethanol is added first, followed by 70%, 95% and 100%. Ethanol is used to dehydrate the cells by slowly removing the water in the cells on the scaffolds.
MDS is added to replace the ethanol solution in the cells as ethanol can damage the cell surface membrane. A better alternative would be to use liquid carbon dioxide because MDS can also slight harm to the cells as well. However, we don't have it in the lab.
The cells and the scaffolds are incubated overnight at 37 degrees C.
Varying concentrations of ethanol
Dr Wen Feng allowed us to prepare the ethanol solutions ourselves!
Lucky Alethea also got the add the ethanol to the cells as well.
We learnt a lot from Dr Wen Feng! Thank you very much!
And that is the end of our ninth day! Alethea is flying off tonight, so she is going to post her reflections of the entire programme today. Tomorrow we would have our last mentor, Huaqiong, who would guide us on how to use the SEM. Tomorrow is our last day at MSE. ): We will continue to work hard tomorrow, learn more new things and end things off on a good note. See you all tomorrow! (:
