Week 7 Reflections on Summer Internship

Figure: heat map I created using GraphPad, combined cytokine data from months May through July.

After nearly two months of working in the lab, I still find myself learning new skills every day. This week, I embarked on the quest of becoming familiar with GraphPad, a data analysis and graphing software. The software handles both quantitative and categorical data and creates stunning, easily customizable graphs. I’ve become even more immensely grateful that I took AP Statistics this past year, for otherwise I can imagine GraphPad’s extensive library of statistical analyses might seem completely incomprehensible. However, it is extremely user-friendly even for those not familiar with statistical procedures; despite its daunting list of t tests, one-, two- and three-way ANOVA, linear and nonlinear regression, dose-response curves, binary logistic regression, survival analysis, principal component analysis, and much more, it provides clear and concise checklists to ensure the user understands the required statistical assumptions for each test.

In addition to deepening my understanding of data analysis, I’ve challenged myself to carry out long laboratory procedures without guidance from postdocs. While I’ve always considered myself to be a visual learner, I’ve found that I cannot truly understand the ins-and-outs of laboratory procedures until I can physically run through them myself. Isolating serum and monocytes from patient blood has become a calmingly repetitive procedure that I look forward to each morning.