Glioblastoma Multiforme...

So today I had to go to a talk about what research is and how to conduct research... very boring. Then we had a radiation seminar that was somewhat interesting since we played radiation jeopardy. I then worked in the lab today and did some cell culture and read A LOT. I learned what I am going to be working on. There are two projects. The first project is on a horrible brain cancer called Glioblastoma Multiforme, which is an aggressive tumor that will kill pretty much anyone who has it. It is really sad, no matter if you have brain surgery or not, the mortality rate is above 95%. Reading all of these papers and seeing all of the people in the hospital waiting for their treatments has been kind of depressing. There are a lot of very sick people here. On the bright side, my project is going to be working on these tumors that come straight from the O.R. With the tumors I will be working on this very promising drug that has yet to hit clinical trials and looks very promising for breast cancers. This will be the first time that it has been used for GBM and is very exciting. The second project I will be working on in lamen terms is pretty much taking an adult neuron (brain cell) and reprogram is into a stem cell (cell that can be turned into any kind of cell... kind of). This has been done in what is called a somatic cell, but has never been done in a neuron before... so this again is a pretty cool project. Other than actual work the weather is very crummy. It is raining and I didn't have an umbrella... and it is about 50 degrees and I had on a polo... very cold. Anyway, I am hungry.