Week 1- Mariela

This was a very exciting and nervewrecking week. On Monday, after orientation and receiving my ID, I wandered around the different buildings to familiarize myself with my surroundings, as I didn't have any meetings until the next day. I was able to get an earlier meeting with my clinician mentor, Dr. David Nanus, after I essentially accidentally stumbled upon his administrative office. Tuesday was my first official meeting with him, and we went over my clinical schedule. I also met with my research advisor for the summer, Dr. Paraskevi Giannakakou (or Evi for short). I continued to poke around the buildings, slipping into conferences with fellows as they went over patient cases.

Wednesday was a full day of clinic shadowing, all day on my feet. As Dr. Nanus specializes in genitourinary cancer, his patients were mostly older men, but there was such a variety of backgrounds. Just the patient stories were quite interesting. I was surprised by how many treatment options are available now: chemotherapy, surgery, radiation, immunotherapy, hormone therapy, even medical marijuana for pain management, as well as combinations of these. Patients were also screened for their potential admittance into clinical trials. Hopefully, I'll be able to see more of what goes into a drug clinical trial, one of the main topics I want to take away from this experience. So much of the terminology sailed right over my head. I need to remember to bring a smaller notebook to make notes in during the day. I was also supposed to shadow a surgeon at the end of the week but that fell through. Hopefully I'll be able to observe medical procedures soon.

Thursday and Friday were spent at the lab. My project here involves investigating the relationship between platelets and circulating tumor cells (CTCs), particularly how platelets can help CTCs evade immune cells and survive flowing in blood. My research here is way, way different than the research I do at Ithaca, and I had kind of expected a different kind of project here. I'm still internally debating whether or not I should seek a project closer to what I know or if I should embrace the challenge of taking on a new project. It does look like I'll have enough time outside the clinic to dig into the lab and complete a good project, and also there is another project at the lab that is more closely related to my interest in therapeutics. We'll see.

Fun at NYC: Besides working, I was able to start enjoying the city. I managed to snag Book of Mormon tickets on the very first time I entered the lottery. I have done a ton of walking already,  surpassing my usual steps for the day. I have also eaten a ton of delicious food, which has surely negated any walking I did.