Cancer Research

April 12^th

            On the Buckeye Cruise for Cancer, I had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Michael Caligiuri, director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center and CEO of the James Cancer Hospital. I was talking with him about  my project. He was fascinated that a high school student would be participating in a project to this magnitude. Dr. Caligiuri offered to have me come into one of his labs and observe his scientists doing cancer research. I was very excited to have the chance to observe clinical trials being performed in a scientific lab setting. That next week, I contacted his secretary to set up a time to come in and observe. For the next two months, we were emailing each other back and forth trying to set up dates. It seemed like there was no overlapping free time between the two of us.  After about the tenth try to set up a date, I considered giving up and forgetting about the opportunity to observe in research. I realized that this experience would make my project much richer, so I took the initiative to call his secretary to talk to her. After about a five-minute talk on the phone, I accomplished my goal setting up a time to shadow in the lab.          

Dr. William Carson's (above) Lab studies the
              immune system and how it reacts with cancers.

When I arrived at Carson Lab, the surroundings looked very similar. I noticed it was right next to the James Cancer hospital where I had been going since January. I was scheduled to visit with Dr. Caliguri and interview him but he was busy doing an interview with 10TV.  I was then escorted to the lab where I met Dr. Carson, professor of Surgery and Associate Director for Clinical Research at OSU Comprehensive Cancer Center.  On our way to the lab, he was briefly describing what they were going to be testing in the lab. He described that they will be testing certain medications in mice spleen to see how the immune system reacts. The immune system usually is compromised when a patient has cancer, making the body less capable of fighting off the cancer cells.  By testing these medicines, he would be able to tell which ones strengthen the immune system.

This is what cells look like using a hemocytometer
       while counting the number of cells.

As I walked in the lab, it reminded me of the chemistry labs at the high school. As I toured the laboratory, I noticed that it was much different than what i experienced in chemistry, due to the expensive equipment to keep things sterile.  Certain chemicals had to remain frozen at temperatures around minus forty degrees Celsius. Dr. Carson passed me off to Christina, one of his graduate research associates.  She was explaining the research she was doing; however much of the material was very difficult to comprehend. The lab work was somewhat tedious; there was usually about twenty minutes of work, then fifteen minutes of down time. After mixing some solutions in with the mice spleen, she actually allowed me to participate by staining the solution and looking through the microscope. We counted the number of cells using a hemacytometer.  This is a slide that has a small grid that allowed us to count the number of cells in one section of the grid and multiply that number by the amount of grids. This hands-on experience was the highlight of my visit.  Although observing cancer researchers in the lab was not the most exciting part of my project, I benefited tremendously and got a great first hand experience on how research is done and what strides we are taking to cure certain cancers.