Last week I had an opportunity to shadow Dr. Frayer in the NICU for rounds, which I greatly enjoyed. We saw about 15 infants during the two hours of rounds each morning. Some of the stories were heartbreaking - one baby was having almost constant seizures and the reason was unclear; another was born with a genetic disease that made his bones very brittle and he already had several fractures; and another was born with only one lung, and it was not clear whether his remaining lung would be sufficient to sustain him. I couldn't believe how tiny some of the preemies were. I learned a lot from Dr. Frayer in his explanations during and after rounds. An interesting thing about the NICU is that the parents are essentially patients as well.
One cool thing that Dr. Frayer showed Alexey and me was the lab where samples are sent for testing. It was incredible how much of it was automated: the tubes came in and were scanned, then they traveled along a conveyer until they reached the machine with the correct assay. There were a ton of high-throughput assay machines in that huge room and I could really see the advances in biotech!
In the afternoons I continued to make progress on my research project at the imaging facility on 55th St. It's been fun to learn more about MRI, which is entirely different from my PhD project, and the analysis software. I've gained an appreciation for imaging and its role in detecting abnormalities that lead to disease. This week I'm in the medical ICU and am continuing on my project.
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