Andi Garcia-Ortiz/Dr. Carli: Week 8 (July 24th - 28th, 2023)

Tuesday (July 25th, 2023)

The Prosthetic Joint Infection (PJI) research groups have weekly meetings at 8am at HSS Research Institute on the 6th floor. The group is led by Dr. Mathias Bostrom and Dr. Alberto Carli. After the meeting, I went to Starr 8A-05 in Weill Cornell Medicine to listen to the rest of my cohort's summer research projects. Afterward, I returned to the HSS Research Institute to start the third round of cement elution studies and collect data for the 1, 2, 4, and 8hr timepoints. We made eight cement coupons using mixing method #1 and submerged them in 1X PBS for the allotted time points. At every time point, the PBS solution was removed for testing and replaced with new PBS.

Wednesday (July 26th, 2023)

I traveled to The City College of New York (CCNY) to visit Prof. Mitch Schaffler. His office is in the Grove School of Engineering on the 5th floor. Dr. James Boorman-Padgett gave me a tour of the campus and the core facilities that the lab utilizes for its osteocyte research. Afterward, Prof. Schaffler shared terrific stories about the origins of the osteocyte bone field and of his personal interactions with its founding members (Dr. Frost and Dr. Jee). It was an overall fantastic day!

Thursday (July 27th, 2023)

Christina was out of the lab so I got to complete the 48 hr time-point cement elution by myself. I had to collect and change the PBS from the cement coupons and run the vancomycin colorimetric assay. I also read the 24hr MIC assay. The MIC was successful in its ability to kill xen36 E. Coli. I also had my high school student Andy practice his colorimetric assay skills by running his own assay alongside mine. His results turned out well and coincided with mine.

Friday (July 28th, 2023)

Christina was out of the lab so I completed the 72 hr time-point cement elution by myself. I had to collect and change the PBS from the cement coupons and run the vancomycin colorimetric assay. After my lab work was complete, I headed to the OR to shadow Dr. Carli. He performed several routine knee and hip replacements on the 4th floor OR. Today was my last day in the lab and the OR. I am very grateful for the opportunity to work at HSS and shadow the world's leading orthopedic surgeons.

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