Lab, Lab, and more Lab!

After a long night of studying and doing homework, I decided to let myself sleep in a little the next morning. I woke up with just enough time to get ready, grab a cup of coffee, and get to class on time. Class today was on the processes of transcription and translation which change DNA into a protein. Also part of the discussion, was the makeup of proteins, the differences and similarities between Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes, and sickle cell disease.

The teachings about sickle cell disease translated into the computer lab we had after lecture. In the lab, we used a program to learn about hemoglobin and how only one mutation differentiates a red blood cell from a sickled red blood cell. The work was done in pairs and I partnered up with Crystal a rising senior from China. Together, we were able to emphasize different characteristics of the hemoglobin in order to further analyze its structure. Here are some pictures of that:

After we finished our work, we were allowed to have a lunch break and then continued class around 1:30 PM. We had lecture for a little longer before returning to the lab, this time to study red blood cells and other organisms under a microscope. 

The lab consisted of setting up a microscope, analyzing the cells located on each microscope slide, and even creating a slide of our own from a genetically modified tobacco plant. This lab was quite hard for me to follow. I felt really bad because I did not want to slow my partner down. When I expressed my concern to her, she said not to worry and that she was also quite confused because she was also new to the lab setting. Other groups also seemed to be struggling and had many questions to ask which led to us leaving the lab more than an hour and a half after the official class end time. 

Our Lab!

Most of us had not even finished the lab yet but Dr. Fineschi realized more explanation was required. She said we should call it a day and we would review the lab and continue the worksheets tomorrow. Dr. Fineschi, being as nice and thoughtful as she is, apologized for keeping us so late, told us to enjoy our night, and said she would make it up to us.

Tonight I was planning to go to an RA event which was watching a movie in Millennium Park, but because of the extended lab time I sadly missed it. Instead, my night was spent reviewing today’s hemoglobin lab and lecture with my lab partner, Crystal, and taking notes on the slides for tomorrow’s lecture. Even though most of my day was spent in the lab I actually really enjoyed. Time goes by really fast and it is much more interesting than lecture. I cannot wait to spend some more time in the lab tomorrow when we will cover DNA replication.