This week I am reading about immunohistochemistry approaches for tumor spheroid models to test for common tumor markers.
Although I did not play any games this week, I did a fair share of hiking! While exploring Inis Mór, I got to climb to the top of Dún Aonghasa, an ancient stone fort situated at the top of a seaside cliff. The views were incredible!
At work this week, I was able to isolate monocytes from human blood! Monocytes are a type of white blood cell involved in fighting against invading cells and viruses. Through a series of isolation steps, I removed the platelets, red blood cells, plasma and other white blood cells from the donor's blood. Once isolated, the monocytes were differentiated into macrophages and co-cultured with cancer cells. Macrophages are a type of defense immune cell that engulfs foreign cells. By co-culturing macrophages and cancer cells, we are hoping to learn more about the influence of macrophages on the migratory capabilities of tumors. This procedure took approximately five hours, but it was very interesting to see the layers in the blood separate!
