Update from the Neuro Side!
The last couple of weeks I’ve been working on the methodology part of my research, which has been super fun! My supervisor taught me the procedure of how to stain brain tissue, to be able to detect perineuronal nets in the hippocampus (perineuronal nets enwrap neurons, preferentially the parvalbumin).
A really cool part of the method was mounting the brain sections on a glass slide, which is basically slowly picking up the brain slices with a tool that looks like a super thin paint brush (maybe it is?) from a petri dish, and bringing the slices onto the slide whilst making sure that:
1. The brain slices don’t dry up (i.e. the solution in the petri dish remains on them and on the slide)
2. You don’t tear the brain slices (as gentle as can be)
(which sounds easier than it seems, my supervisor finished doing 7 slides while I was on my first one — true story)
The rest of the procedure consists of a lot of mixing a lot of different chemicals and solutions and waiting and mixing and combining and waiting and putting into machines and other detailed stuff. By the end of it though (by the end I mean 4 hours per day for 3 days!) you get slides of brain sections which light up green (i.e. showing the PNN staining) and red (i.e. showing the PV staining) when put under this really high-tech microscope — which was so fun and the best part is being able to see the outcome.
Now I’ve got neuronal counting to do see if there is a difference between conditions. Oh and I’m blind to the experiment! I have no idea which brain the images are from when I’m collecting the data — some good research practice happening here.
Till next time,
Sam
