First Week Down

9 more to go. This week has been mixed emotions for me. The first day in Grand Forks ND was Sunday. I got in around 4:30, and it was sunny and warm at about 80 degrees. As I drove through the college town, I was just eager to NOT drive any further. I found the parking lot in front of my dorm-to-be, and just sat there for a minute taking it all in. I was praising God that I had gotten here with no car trouble, no traffic jams, and no bad weather. It was seriously a problem free road trip. I walked into my building, with NO clue what I was supposed to do. The door was locked, but I saw a phone number on the door. I called the number, and an RA came and let me in. I signed a couple papers, they gave me my keys, and sent me on my way. They didn't even show me where my room was. I wandered around and eventually found 316B and got into my room. I began to wonder how on earth I was going to move all my stuff from the parking lot to the third floor all by myself (I brought a lot of stuff, and some of the boxes were pretty heavy). Well after my first trip, the RA showed me a cart I could use to roll my stuff in. That was much easier, and after about 4 or 5 trips, all my stuff was in my room. My roommate wasn't getting in until 8 or so, so I had some time to unpack and settle in.  A little while later I met my suite-mates, who share a connected bathroom with us. 


Monday was the first big day. All the research students met in the morning for a meeting. There are 9 of us in the program that I am in (REU neuroscience). There are 3 other research programs running at the same time though, so we all met together. Most of the other programs are for students from the University of North Dakota, but our program is mostly people from out of state. We sat through a welcome meeting, several lectures, a few training seminars, and things of that nature. I had to pass a test about the proper treatment of lab animals. At the end of the day I got to meet my professor, Keith Henry, who I will be working with in the lab. He has his only lab where he studies neuroscience physiology. Working in the lab for him are 2 grad students, 2 medical school students, and 2 lab technicians. I am the only undergrad, so I'm the baby of the lab. The first day I was only there for an hour, but Dr. Henry just lectured me about all the research they are doing. It was a lot to take in, and it felt a little over my head. I have only learned the very basics of the nervous system and the functioning of neurons, so he had to basically start from square one and explain everything before he could get to the point of what their research is actually testing. After a week of asking questions and slowly getting the big picture, I am more confident in what they are actually doing, and I feel like I really understand it! For the sake of this blog though, I think I will try to put it into terms you will all understand. And maybe through some big words in just for fun. 

This is just the most basic diagram I could find to show you the important steps of neural functions that I am specifically researching. So you have neurons (nerve cells) that communicate to each other with chemical signals called neurotransmitters. These neurotransmitters are release out of the cell and into the synaptic gap between two neurons. Some of the neurotransmitters attach to receptors on the next cell, and the signal is passed on to that cell, and so on and so forth. The neurotransmitters that are floating around in that synaptic gap are recycled back into the cell that they came from. In order to get back in the cell, they are taken in by a re-uptake transporter in the plasma membrane. This transporter has an active site that the neurotransmitter will chemically bind to, and when calcium and sodium are also present, the transporter will open to the inside of the cell, placing the neurotransmitter back into the cytoplasm to be reused. Ok, so if the transporter is structurally changed, the neurotransmitter may not fit properly, or may need to bind in a different area. If the DNA that codes for the proteins that make up these transporters is mutated, then the structure will change. We are testing different DNA mutations in the lab to see which ones work best, and which ones don't work at all.