This past week has seen the half way mark of my time at Genzyme approach far too quickly! Each working day has been very fast paced, as the lab in general has been preparing for shut downs in various facilities across the Framingham site. My work has included preparing the environmental monitoring plates for the weekend staff and making sure that all the files needed are organized in order to make the weekend run more smoothly. After further training on plate streaking I managed to get signed off by my supervisor and am therefore now in a position to perform some indivual work and analysis in the lab! I am still training on plate counting almost every day with another member of staff and I can feel my skills in this area improving also. Due to the fact that this is a microbiology lab and I study Biochemistry, it has taken a little bit more learning in order to identify the strains of bacteria on the plate, however I feel that I am getting there now! I also started to observe a brand new technique last week called a gel clot LAL which tests for endotoxins that can make you sick in various samples given for testing, there are a number of steps to this technique so I am trying to watch is as many times as possible in order to get to grips with it! I attended an intern event called a 'science panel discussion' last week, where four highly qualified scientists discussed how they chose their field of interest and the various stages that they went through to get there. It made me consider doing a PhD as opposed to a masters upon graduation which is something I had definitely not considered before, but the passion that the four employees had was so inspiring and clearly fuelled from their individual graduate school studies. It seems that grad school is a very common decision that is made over here, with everyone trying to obtain as a high a qualification as possible, and therefore I am sure I will go on to do some form of graduate study in order to make myself more competitive on the global market. 

One of the men speaking at the Science Panel Discussion, Dr Pablo Sardi,  was involved in the field of Neuroscience and spoke about his career pathway and his current research into Parkinson's Disease. His work particularly interested me as I considered studying Neuroscience at undergraduate level for a long time. Following the panel, I sent him an email asking to spend an afternoon or two in his lab and explained my interest in his research. He was extremely positive about giving me more information and offered me an afternoon through in his lab on Thursday last week, where I shadowed his co-op student and helped set up and perform various experiments. He also mentioned that he knew a scientist in a lab over in London and offered me his contact details should I decide I would like more specific experience in the field which was very exciting! When I was talking to the intern it became very apparent that the transition between finishing studies and entering the working world is much smoother over here, and this is certainly something I will take back to and try to promote in the UK. It appears that companies over here are a lot more willing to provide the experience to the students who are interested in gaining it.

Once again, outside of work has been a jam packed schedule, and I went to my first baseball game at Fenway Park (of course supporting the Red Sox)! Unfortunately they lost 9-1 to Cleveland so the atmosphere in the stadium was not really supportive of the mexican waves our fellow intern, Sean, kept trying to start! However it was fun nonetheless, and after I got explained exactly what an inning, strike and pitcher were I was good to go. Despite being told I must get a hot dog as a matter of baseball tradition, I chose to bypass the stand once I saw the crazy prices they were going for! The weekend saw a (rather embarrassing) trip to see Step up 3D where the entire audience was laughing at the cheesy lines and hilarious dancers that popped out the screen at you, the entire audience that is apart from Christine who was genuinly touched by the storyline. This obviously only made the experience funnier for myself, but it was a worthwhile trip either way as I sampled butter sauce being poured all over my popcorn, it's a real shock I am not double the size I was when I came here! On Saturday we became a little more cultured and took a trolley tour around Boston, where you can take a tour bus and get on and off as many times as you like! However Christine and I got a little carried away and practically just walked our way around the whole of Boston, but I feel that we finally got to see everything and have a good feel at last for what the city has to offer. We visited Charlestown where the navy boats are, climbed up all 294 steps of Bunker Hill Monument (my muscles are STILL hurting), visited the North End (little Italy) where there are many little restaurants and food stalls, churches, cemeteries and many more sites! We even found Boston Hard Rock Cafe on the way! Yesterday I attempted to start an essay I have due at the beginning of term, but with the sun shining and so much to do it was hard to concentrate! This weekend we are off to explore New York, so hopefully I'll take some good pictures and be able to upload them onto this!

Until next time,

Steph x