RET Experience

Jeff Martin Siegel High School Honors Chemistry I and AP Chemistry II

The first day of the RET experience consisted of basic introduction to the other participants in the program, followed by an overview of previous workshops.  Afterwards, we were given an overview of the Legacy Cycle and its objectives in the learning process.  We then began to work through the ECG module at an accelerated pace to become familiar with the mosaic model.  Included in the instruction were a number of the challenges that were included in the module.  The second day was spent completing the ECG module and additional challenges.  The third day consisted of follow-up on the module, followed by a number of presentations by different members of the BME department explaining their main areas of research emphasis.

The first day working in the lab of Dr. Patricia Russ was spent observing the protocol established for imaging retinal circulation.  After an explanation of the process, we were able to observe first hand how the process was preformed.  An anesthetized rat was injected with tagged antibodies and the retina was imaged using a special microscope.  Afterwards, an additional fluorescent tag was injected and the circulation was imaged using a strobe light to measure the movement through the retina.  This data was then used to measure the number and velocity of circulating leukocytes.  After the rat was sacrificed, a whole mount of the eye was made to obtain accurate measurements of the size of the retina.  The objective of this protocol was to look at retinal permeation in the eyes of diabetic rats in the hope of developing a means to diagnose diabetic retinopathy at an early stage. 

After observing the work in the lab, the challenge was to come up with a module that was applicable to my high school chemistry classes.  In further discussions with Dr. Russ and some of the graduate students, it was decided that I might have better success working on some of the other projects that were being conducted in the lab.  One such project involved placing cellular monolayers on silicate materials in the hopes of developing antibody response sites on integrated circuits for high throughput cellular or viral screening.  Some work had been started on the process, and it seemed natural to look into the chemistry of the process and make suggestions for new protocols.  The majority of my time was spent looking into the process of how best to create these monolayers.  I spent the bulk of my work researching various chemicals that might be used to create a substrate onto which labeled antibodies might be placed.  I had to research the chemistry of different alkylsilanes and how the antibodies would react with different akyl substitutes on the silane layers.  Although there was not a lot of information in the literature on this specific topic, I was able to recommend several potential reactions to the graduate students that might be incorporated into a protocol.

Overall, the experience was an excellent opportunity to collaborate not only with other high school teachers, but with university level researchers in an advanced laboratory setting.  I would recommend this experience to anyone with an interest in gaining a more thorough knowledge of the research setting at the university level.