Endorphins and Other Drugs

Today, I stepped away from the literature and into real hands-on work for the first time at my new research position, which I celebrated by finally putting on my lab coat.

I spent part of the morning observing a brain tumor trial in mice, where the two investigators (one being Ignasi, my PI/Lab Grand Poobah) are testing how the tumors of different people create new tumors in the brains of rats injected with their cancerous tissues.  The tumors can show up as bright white spots, or be diffuse enough that things just don't look right.  Or they could just not get a tumor.  The funny part is, after the rats are anesthetized, they wrap them in bubble wrap so they don't get cold inside the machine.  Here they are, hooking their little rat teeth on a hook so they don't slip out of place while the little critters are dolled up like a piece of china that's about to be chucked in a FedEx box.  The mice were pretty darn cute, scurrying around.

The rest of the morning was spent between activities doing some serious lab bonding.  Now that the word is out that I'm a runner, all of the other runners in the lab are casually suggesting we have awesome running experiences together.  I'm already going running with Ignasi later this week in the mountains behind our hospital, and today I signed up for a 10k with two other lab members, Marcos and Victor.  Here's how it happened: during the massive amounts of Googling that I've done over the last few days, I unearthed a number of fascinating activities in Barcelona.  One of them was a race this Saturday in the neighboring town of Badalona (the black sheep of the Catalan shore town family), starting from the shore, going through the town, and circling/climbing a mountain before returning through the city.  Oh, and this is all at night, among thousands of other people wearing headlamps and whooping it up.  Brilliant, right?  I think I'm going to like it here.  So anyway, the entire website was in Catalan and handily defeated Google Translate, so I waited until I got to lab and asked my lab mates if they knew anything about the race.  Nobody did, but they all thought it sounded awesome.  One glitch: it's full, and I'm now on the waiting list.  Fingers crossed, though!  Anyway, this discussion prompted an invitation to join Marcos and Victor in two weeks for... La Maquinista! (http://www.lamaquinista.com/W/do/centre/cursaintegraciolamaquinista)

It’s just a 10k triangular loop around part of the city, but the important parts are (1) lab bonding and (2) it’s a random part of the city that I haven’t been to.  Plus, it's an excuse to go for yet another run.

My afternoon was both chillier and more hands-on at the lab.  I finally dove into the -70 degree Celsius freezer to find my human heart transplant biopsy samples.  Luckily, they were near the front and emblazoned boldly with DayGlo orange tape.  I measured the samples, chopped up some rat thigh muscle as an approximation (apparently, the two types of muscle have a similar density), and set aside my pinprick sized chunks of rat for testing tomorrow.  Basically, I need to check that the samples are big enough to use for the techniques I will use.  Clearly, once they've gone to the trouble of putting a new heart in someone, they don't want to cut out a big chunk, but some of the samples are worryingly small.  But we shall see!  Hope springs eternal in the research lab.  And reality check: I held bits of 11 people's hearts today.  In my hand.  That's pretty amazing.

The day ended with another adventure: Naaman and I went to a movie screening of Love and Other Drugs with other English speakers at the Inusual Project.

  Note the movie credits on the left side of the photo (this was after the lights were turned back on)

We found it through a site called MeetUp, and while we've agreed that it's our last movie screening, I found a running group through it that I'm going to try on Thursday.  I'm not sure if only the 40+ crowd in this city is lonely, but they seem to be the only people that Naaman and I attract.  Or maybe we actual are being grandmas and are only drawn to activities intended for the middle-aged.  The one real downside was the 50-year old man next to me, who ten minutes into the movie decided to strike up a conversation because "I looked like I was alone, and he thought he should say hi."  Buddy, I'm watching two hot people fall in love.  Kind of busy.  Regardless, it brought me to another new part of town, I got to watch a movie and relax, and there was salty, buttery popcorn overflowing from giant bowls.

Spotted: a mini foodie fest.  I celebrated the end of my wonderful work day with a loaf of fresh bread (now departed) and one of my pots of jam.

I decided on the pear one, and had a wonderful time slathering it onto crusty, torn-apart pieces of the freshly baked, still-warm bread.  A little bit of heaven, and I didn't even have to share.