Week 2: I didn't pass out!

Although I didn’t think it was possible, week two was even better than week one. I got to learn more about the project I will be working on, which is about analyzing the pattern in MRI and PET prostate images using texture analysis to identify tumor development and patient outcome. I learned how to use different biomedical image processing software to analyze the texture in the images. The differences in the image analyzing software made me wonder whether different software could produce different outputs of the same image.

I went to a few cancer seminars hosted in the Memorial Sloan Kettering Building and in the Belfer Building. The first seminar was about how different proteins and molecules in the cytoplasm have are in various liquid phases which allows them to separate and aggregate naturally in the cell. One of the future implications of this research might be to be explain how proteins aggregate in the brain causes Alzheimer disease.

I was also able to shadow a plastic surgeon, Dr. Jason Spector, and a neurosurgeon, Dr. Ted Schwartz during their surgeries. The plastic surgery cases were diverse and weren’t just cosmetically related as I had expected. The first surgery was for placing natural skin graft onto the patient’s heel and the second surgery was for removing a lesion on the cheek. The third was an eyebrow lift and upper eyelid gold-weight insertion for treating facial paralysis and lagopthalmos (inability to close eyelids completely due to facial nerve damage).  The first neurosurgery was a lumbar spine surgery, I think, since the surgeons were working near the lower back region.

One of the things that amazed me most about the operating room was how everyone was able to work together as if they were an ant colony. Some of the nurses would hold out the instruments before the doctor asked for them, or the doctors would work together in a crowded area. I am even more excited about the next few weeks!