Week 5: Seo-Ho/Dr. Thomas Fahey

 This week, I had the opportunity to watch another parathyroidectomy and a total thyroidectomy. As these surgeries become more and more familiar, I am also growing to understand the anatomy, functions, and terminology associated with the thyroid. Each time, it is so interesting to see the immediate change in parathyroid hormone levels in the bloodstream upon a parathyroid removal from the patient. I also expected that the entire gland has to be intact for the hormone to be produced, but seeing how a a tiny parathyroid gland can be removed, chopped up into tiny pieces, and then reimplanted into the body in pieces to reform the gland over time and resume normal function is quite surprising and makes me realize that the human body is very adaptive.

On the clinical side, I shadowed two more fine needle aspirations of thyroid nodules and was able to observe under the microscope how follicular cells are arranged and look. Their nuclei are approximately the size of a red blood cell, while the nuclei of macrophages are massive in comparison and span multiple follicular cell nuclei. Additionally, I shadowed Dr. Fahey and his team as they met with a patient who had previously been seen by another doctor and told to remove their parathyroid glands. Dr. Fahey and their team discussed with each other and the patient to determine what potential underlying condition the patient could have and come to a conclusion for next steps together.

In the lab, I am continuing to culture human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). I recently expanded and froze down EndoC beta cells and HEK293T cells and am now practicing differentiating hESCs into monocytes over a 15-day protocol. So far, the morphology of my cells match the morphology in the paper, so fingers crossed!

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