Week #7: From Pixels to Plates

Hey everyone, welcome back! This week I balanced the artistic side of science with some hands‑on cell work. Here’s how it went down:

With our data analyses wrapping up, I dove into Adobe Illustrator to assemble the research poster for our upcoming symposium. First, I imported the 3D reconstructions and quantitative plots from IMARIS, then carefully arranged them alongside concise figure captions. I standardized fonts and colors to ensure consistency, used alignment grids to balance text blocks, and added call‑outs highlighting key findings, like the altered Ki67 and Sox2 distributions in drug‑treated sections. Adjusting contrast and vectorizing certain diagrams made the images pop, and exporting as a high‑res PDF means the final print will look crisp. It’s always satisfying to see raw data transform into a clear visual narrative.

On the bench, I focused on tissue culture work to collect fresh fetal brain tissue for our next set of assays. I started by coating multiple six‑well plates with Poly‑D‑Lysine to promote cell adherence. Meanwhile, I prepared media composed of DMEM/F12 supplemented with glutamate, sodium pyruvate, B27 SDX, Pen/Strep, and NR, warming it to 37 °C before use. Under sterile conditions, I retrieved fresh tissue sections, performed gentle enzymatic digestion with papain to dissociate cells, and then centrifuged and resuspended the pellet in culture media. After counting cells with a hemocytometer, I plated them at optimal density and placed the plates in our incubator. These primary cultures will allow us to observe live‑cell responses to drug treatments and collect additional material for future immunostaining and molecular assays.

It was a week of contrasts, spending mornings perfecting layout details in Illustrator and afternoons nurturing delicate neural cultures at the hood. Seeing the poster come together gave me a real sense of progress, while setting up the cultures reminded me of the patience required for biological work. Next week, I’ll monitor cell viability, change media, and begin preliminary drug exposures in culture. Stay tuned for updates on how these live‑cell assays compare to our fixed‑tissue findings!