Sanraj's and Xuan Wei's experience (week 2: Drug coating)
This week, we were tasked to carry out the drug coating with our new mentor: Mr Lim Wei Shan (soon to be holding a PhD ). First, we were introduced to the ureteric stent, a device placed inside the ureter to connect the kidney to the bladder. Each end of the stent curls into the shape of a circle and leads from the kidney to the ureter to the bladder.
The purpose of the stent is to hold open the ureter and prevent the walls of the ureter from getting compressed (Ureteric Stricture) so that there is a smooth flow of urine.
In today's world, some scientists are trying to put 2 layers of coating around the stent. On the first layer, it is coated with the drug that is hydrophobic and the next layer, with expendable hydro-gel. This has not been commercialized yet and a lot of research is being done in this area.
The stent shown below is a bare stent without any coating. It is a thin piece of polymer which runs approximately 20cm in length and 0.2cm in diameter.
Could you imagine this long strand of Polymer, Silicon and Hydrogel being inserted into your body? OMG gives me the chills, especially after Wei Shan told us it was inserted through the urethra.
Next, we went into yellow room to assist Wei Shan with his experiment. Here, we garnered the skills of using the micro-pipette, syringe and the automated-crimper.
Using the micro-pipette and syringe, we transferred samples into small valves for testing later on.
As you can see, Xuan Wei and I are transferring the samples using the syringe into small brown valves.
This was a very tedious and meticulous process and one mistake could cause us to start all over again. However, it was a fruitful experience as we handled much more technologically-savvy equipment than what our JC tutors had to offer for chemistry and physics practical lessons. (For JC, we only use measuring cylinders and burettes)
We used the crimper to seal the caps of the valves tightly so that none of the samples would spill out easily. Next, we brought our samples to the High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC).
The HPLC is a very complex machine as there 6 parts to it.
We placed the valves into the HPLC which allowed us to quantify the concentration of the drug inside the samples which can then be applied to the ureteric stent.
This is what the tedious process looks like. We must first wait for the pressure inside the HPLC to stabilize. Only then can the robotic arm in the machine extract samples from the valves to test them. This would take awhile so we went to eat lunch during this period.
All in all, this was a meaningful experience as we were given the opportunity to handle expensive lab equipment which we would not be able to find back in our JC and also, since we are physics students, we have never dwelled into the field of biology which we were allowed to do so today and we must say, it was a pretty experiential one.
JunYang and Ying Li's experience (Week 2: Batteries)
Today we were both greeted by our very friendly mentor who is a brilliant person. He brought us to the Research Techno-Plaza at NTU where he worked and first sat us down in a meeting room where he started to introduce to us what he was working on; Lithium Ion Batteries. He started by introducing the classification of batteries and from there he started talking about Lithium Ion batteries which is a popular type of rechargeable battery that had high energy density, small memory effect and only a slow loss of charge when not in use. However he has said that since Lithium is reactive, accidents may happen. He then proceeded to leave us to do our own research so that we could clarify our doubts and ask him questions after that. We had the whole meeting room to ourselves where we could make our own coffee and have sweets that were on the table.
This week, we were tasked to carry out the drug coating with our new mentor: Mr Lim Wei Shan (soon to be holding a PhD ). First, we were introduced to the ureteric stent, a device placed inside the ureter to connect the kidney to the bladder. Each end of the stent curls into the shape of a circle and leads from the kidney to the ureter to the bladder.
The purpose of the stent is to hold open the ureter and prevent the walls of the ureter from getting compressed (Ureteric Stricture) so that there is a smooth flow of urine.
In today's world, some scientists are trying to put 2 layers of coating around the stent. On the first layer, it is coated with the drug that is hydrophobic and the next layer, with expendable hydro-gel. This has not been commercialized yet and a lot of research is being done in this area.
The stent shown below is a bare stent without any coating. It is a thin piece of polymer which runs approximately 20cm in length and 0.2cm in diameter.
 |
| Ureteric Stent (apprx 20 cm long) |
Next, we went into yellow room to assist Wei Shan with his experiment. Here, we garnered the skills of using the micro-pipette, syringe and the automated-crimper.
Using the micro-pipette and syringe, we transferred samples into small valves for testing later on.
As you can see, Xuan Wei and I are transferring the samples using the syringe into small brown valves.
This was a very tedious and meticulous process and one mistake could cause us to start all over again. However, it was a fruitful experience as we handled much more technologically-savvy equipment than what our JC tutors had to offer for chemistry and physics practical lessons. (For JC, we only use measuring cylinders and burettes)
We used the crimper to seal the caps of the valves tightly so that none of the samples would spill out easily. Next, we brought our samples to the High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC).
The HPLC is a very complex machine as there 6 parts to it.
We placed the valves into the HPLC which allowed us to quantify the concentration of the drug inside the samples which can then be applied to the ureteric stent.
This is what the tedious process looks like. We must first wait for the pressure inside the HPLC to stabilize. Only then can the robotic arm in the machine extract samples from the valves to test them. This would take awhile so we went to eat lunch during this period.
All in all, this was a meaningful experience as we were given the opportunity to handle expensive lab equipment which we would not be able to find back in our JC and also, since we are physics students, we have never dwelled into the field of biology which we were allowed to do so today and we must say, it was a pretty experiential one.
JunYang and Ying Li's experience (Week 2: Batteries)
Today we were both greeted by our very friendly mentor who is a brilliant person. He brought us to the Research Techno-Plaza at NTU where he worked and first sat us down in a meeting room where he started to introduce to us what he was working on; Lithium Ion Batteries. He started by introducing the classification of batteries and from there he started talking about Lithium Ion batteries which is a popular type of rechargeable battery that had high energy density, small memory effect and only a slow loss of charge when not in use. However he has said that since Lithium is reactive, accidents may happen. He then proceeded to leave us to do our own research so that we could clarify our doubts and ask him questions after that. We had the whole meeting room to ourselves where we could make our own coffee and have sweets that were on the table.
The Meeting Room
Of course we enjoyed the refreshments and did our research on the batteries, coming up with a few questions to ask our mentor. We clarified our doubts as he answered our questions with ease and he seemed really really knowledgeable about it as he could remember the different temperatures and all that.
Researching on the batteries
Lastly he also brought us around the building as he showed us the lab from the outside and as we walked around we found posters and papers that was written by our mentor himself, which really left us in awe. He even brought us to the pantry where he said we could go and relax in. The day ended there and he told us he would bring us into the lab tomorrow where we would be able to work with the batteries and machinery. :)
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