Isla McKerrow's blog

Week 8 of my internship was really exciting as I reached a day I never thought would come- the end of sediment core dissections! As I've mentioned before in my blogs, core dissections involve sawing at frozen mud in the CMOP cold room- so while it yields some really interesting and valuable results, it can be a bit of a tiring (and messy!) process. It felt good to be free of the cold room, and it felt even better to have a complete picture of the snail abundance in our various sites throughout the summer months.

As some of the other blogs have mentioned, this past week was one of my busiest weeks here as an IEH intern! The week began quickly as Kiley returned from her trip and we all got to work. On Monday, we had a busy day of continuing sediment core dissections and extracting DNA from previously processed cores. In the mid-afternoon, we had a lab meeting. These meetings are a good time in the week for all of us- myself and my mentor, as well as my fellow intern Maddie and her mentor- to get together with our Principal Investigator, Dr. Holly Simon, to talk about our progress in the lab.

Week 6 of my internship was a busy and productive, but relatively uneventful one. My frontline mentor, Kiley, was out for the week as she had returned home for a visit after the 4th of July weekend. This lack of direct supervision worked out just fine, as I have now been in the lab for a decent amount of time and am comfortable maneuvering around and completing my tasks on my own. I really just had one big task for the week- processing (seemingly endless) sediment cores that we had taken from our sample sites in both May and June.

I've been so busy here in the lab that some time has passed since I last gave updates on my progress, but I will summarize what I've been up to in these last couple of weeks. The beginning of my fourth week in the lab was very busy- we were preparing all the supplies necessary to go sediment sampling very early in the morning on Wednesday! The Senior Research Assistant Lydie was out for the week, so the task of organizing and arranging everything fell to me, my mentor Kiley, and Lydie's intern Maddie.

In my third week, I continued developing my proficiency in the lab. This week I focused less on the sediment coring and more on molecular techniques that will allow me to quantitatively analyze our sediment samples. I got very comfortable with extracting DNA from sediment samples, as well as analyzing its concentration using the NanoDrop, making series dilutions and updating the Simon lab Excel sample sheet we use to keep everyone up to date on our sample processing.

In my second week in lab, I began to perform some of the procedures by myself, rather than shadowing Kiley or doing htem with her assistance, as I did in my first week. My first challenge was gaining confidence with sediment coring, which is crucial to my project. Sediment coring isn't a formal lab procedure, but is rather a method Kiley has developed during her time at CMOP to help with her project. Sediment samples are taken in 50ml tubes from strategic sites out on the coast, near Astoria, where the P. antipodarum are known to exist.

My name is Isla McKerrow and I am an undergraduate intern with the Institute of Environmental Health at OHSU. This summer, I am working in Dr. Holly Simon's lab, under the mentorship of graduate student Kiley Seitz. My project is entitled "The Potential Effects of the Invasive Gastropod Potamopyrgus antipodarum on the Columbia River Estuary." The invasive New Zealand mud snail, P. antipodarum, has been an invasive species in the waterways of the western United States for years.