A Light on Microscopic Observations

This past week, we visited the lab of a professor and scientist at UCSD, Dr. Sasha Kauffman. We were first welcomed be a woman, Jen, who gave us a quick overview of their research. We learned that the lab mainly focuses on the protein kisspeptin and focused on the AVPV section of the brain in order to tell the difference of estrogen and testosterone in male and female brains. Since not a lot of people donate their brains to science, they focus on mice brains.

My favorite part as well as the part when I felt I learned the most was when we were in the room where they keep all of the microscopes. We first observed the hypothalamus region of two female mice. Near the hypothalamus is a section of the brain called the AVPV, this section somehow transcribes messages to the pituitary gland which then creates reproductive structures for males and females. By using the microscopes, we were told to tell which one was injected with testosterone. We were able to tell that the female with less Kisspeptin cells in this region was the one injected with testosterone because it meant that it had little to no estradiol, which is created in the AVPV region. This, I felt was extremely helpful because it gave me a look into what my internship would be. Along with this, I could now feel slightly familiar with the setting of a professional microscope when I begin my internship at a different lab facility on the UCSD campus.