A little of what I do

Well, I figure it's time to show what I do day in and day out.  Essentially, I watch platelets attach to different substrates (surfaces).  This is typically followed by some counting... manual cuonting of the platelets.  These sorts of high tech analyses require a doctorate. 

However, it does get more interesting when I try to observe the mechanics of platelet adherence.  Here, we have a TIRF (total internal reflectance fluorescence) microscopy image of platelets attaching to Fibrinogen.  The brightness of the platelet corresponds with a region that is closest to the surface.  Essentially, the technique allows us to quantify the depth of the platelet morphology from 10-300 nm from the surface. 

I also officially became a biologist when I ran my first Western Blot of some platelet lysates.  These tell us if a certain protein exists based on the size of the protein.  On the left is the size based on kilodaltons.  The lysates are run through a gel and separate by size.  Then specific proteins can be labeled, as seen by the black spots.  I figure that's enough detail for my average reader.  These are some of the fun activities than one can perform in the laboratory, but don't try this at home ;)