Week 2: Settled in the City

Tibra Wheeler

Two weeks down, five more to go – my time in the city is flying by way too fast. Before I talk about this past week, let’s talk about my first weekend in NYC was definitely an experience. We traveled to Brooklyn to go to Smorgasburg, which is an outdoor foodie market on Saturdays. There were so many food options in one area that it was overwhelming (I’m not one for making decisions when it comes to food). I finally settled on getting chicken and waffles. While eating that deliciousness, I waited in line (for a long time) for John’s Juice to get a Pineapple John. It was some of the best pineapple juice I’ve ever had plus it was served in the pineapple with a super cute straw. We walked around Brooklyn, getting some great views of the city from the East Shoreline and took a tour of the Boston Brewery to learn some history. That evening, we went to Vinnie’s pizzeria and I got a pizza that had mini pizzas as the toppings – “pizza on top on pizza.” I took a Snapchat picture of it but forgot to save it so that just means I have to go back. Sunday, we went to the Pride Parade and saw some pretty cool floats. Dessert for that night was a tasty mini raspberry lemon meringue from Maison Kayser.

This week was filled with research, introductions, meetings, more food, and even more dessert. On Monday, I was able to meet with Dr. Maher and talk more with her about what she does; she also gave me a tour of the biomechanics facility and told me more about the other teams working in that building. During our conversation about my current Ph.D. project in Ithaca, she thought of a side project I could do on my own while also shadowing in the lab. She along with some collaborators have MRI data from patients who received sensors during their knee surgery. These MRI scans were taken at specified points during and after surgery. My role in this project will be to help segment out the cartilage from these scans and analyze them. Later that day, I met with Tony who showed me how to do a live-dead assay on the cartilage punches we made last week. This helps to show that there are viable cells within the cartilage prior to them being loaded. Unfortunately, after doing this viability assay we saw that there was a layer of tissue that didn’t have live nor dead cells in it, indicating that there may have been trauma to the tissue beforehand. We decided to not use those cartilage punches so we were left with only one cow sample to work with the next day.

On Tuesday, I attended the biomechanics meeting in the morning. A design engineer was presenting on patient-specific triflanges which are ultimately used to treat severe bone loss in total hip arthroplasty (THA). I found it interesting that these triflanges could possibly be custom made for each patient and helped to overcome some of the limitations of other implants used in THA revisions. That afternoon, I finally was able to see the bioreactor in action. Tony showed me how to load the cartilage samples into the bioreactor and how to set everything up. He went through the program that runs the bioreactor and explained the different settings that are currently being used. The setup didn’t go as smoothly as expected but he was able to show me the basics. I also go the chance to practice loading the bioreactor with some samples that we weren’t using so that I could get a feel of how to do it. After the bioreactor work, I practiced some more with my immortalized chondrocytes and learned how to split them, which is just when the current cells are divided into more flasks.

That evening, I had plans to get a cronut from Dominque Ansel Bakery. But to my surprise, when I arrived, they were already sold out of the cronuts. I settled for a chocolate chip cookies shot which was a chocolate chip cookie in the shape of a shot glass filled with vanilla milk. We decided to go to dinner at Black Tap and although they’re a burger place, they’re known for their HUGE milkshakes (yes, I got one).

I was supposed to go to the OR with Dr. Ranawat on Wednesday, but I got my scrub account number late so I had to postpone my OR visit. Because I thought I would be in the OR, I didn’t schedule much for the morning. That afternoon, I met with Dr. Medhi Khoshgoftar. He is going to be helping me with the segmentation of the MRI scans for the other project I will be working on. While meeting with him, he talked to me about the importance of making computational models for the work that we do as well as giving me a little background on computational modeling. He directed me to the segmentation software that he uses and gave me some practice scans to work on before I start segmenting the real scans. That night we celebrated a friend’s birthday by getting tasty tacos at Salvation Taco and of course we couldn’t get Mexican cuisine with getting churros con chocolate for dessert.

As always, Thursday was meeting day starting with lab group meeting. During the meeting, we just heard updates from everyone in the lab on their progress and any difficulties they had during the week. Right after that, we went to the Orthopedic Soft Tissue Research meeting in which Dr. Scott Rodeo gave a talk about using platelet rich plasma (PRP). He talked about their current limitations as well as how they could be extremely useful if these limitations are overcome and the unknowns about using PRP are determined. That afternoon, I was able to go to the biomechanics testing room to see a tekscan sensor placed in the cadaveric knee. This knee was then placed on the knee simulator, which is a machine that uses a program to help mimic activities like walking in the cadaveric knee. Using this simulator along with the tekscan sensor allows researchers to see where the pressure is during the specified activity.

Last night, I took my first trip to Times Square. It was so overwhelming, but it was fun. We went to see Phantom of the Opera at the Majestic Theater. The show was great and I’m looking forward to seeing more Broadway shows while I’m here. What amazed me even more about Times Square was that even though after the show it was dark, there are so many lights in the area that it still felt like it was daytime; I can’t wait to go back.

This morning we had our weekly meeting with Dr. Min and Dr. Prince. It was nice to go around the room and hear what everyone accomplished or took away from their experience this week. I have a meeting setup next week with Dr. Koff to talk more about the MRI project and hopefully, I’ll be getting in the OR with Dr. Ranawat soon.

Here’s to another successful week and to another fun weekend (fingers crossed)!