Finally Getting Somewhere (with a lot of patience)

The last few weeks have really picked up in pace. Since my first blog post, we have finally been able to run subjects for our experiments. Of course, as soon as we had our methods piloted, tested, and ready to go, our video recorders stopped working one by one. When we got them going again, we didn’t have any healthy subjects to run. Finally, with the INBRE conference a week and a half away, we are running and scoring subjects like crazy. We will be running subjects up to the last possible second so I can include as much data as possible in my poster, but there’s still a long way to go. My experience in INBRE has taught me a lot of patience and that if something can go wrong, it probably will. We’ve had to change our methods to accommodate our video recordings, we’ve had some frustrating weeks with no litters to run, and we’ve had some weeks that are so busy we hardly have time for lunch. We’ve come in at 7 a.m., 9:30 p.m., and every time in between. Animal research is tough because we have to breed the animals, wait for a healthy litter, and then wait until they’re the right age and hope we have enough females. It has been frustrating and exhausting at times, but so rewarding regardless. I am so grateful to have been part of this program this summer, and I can’t wait to continue my research in developmental behavioral neuroscience.

#behavioralneuroscience