My Dissertation Experience<\/u><\/p>\n
Supervisor(s) and project title(s):<\/p>\n
Why I chose these topics\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ll start with a brief overview of both my projects because my dissertation set-up was slightly different to how it is now but for the rest of the article I will mainly discuss the laboratory project as it may be more relevant to you guys lucky enough to be in the process of completing your dissertation as you read this.<\/p>\n My dissertation was split into two 5000-word projects, one being a literature review and the other being a laboratory research project. My literature review fell under the category of \u2018Neurobiology\u2019 and was entitled \u2018The pathophysiology of depression and current therapeutic approaches\u2019. I chose this topic because I am really interested in mental health and so took the opportunity to integrate my interest into my academic studies.<\/p>\n The 5000-word laboratory project I carried out was in the field of Cell Biology and was entitled \u2018The endocannabinoid system as a therapeutic target in acute lymphoblastic leukemia\u2019. I opted to research a Cell Biology project after enjoying the techniques modules I completed in my second year of study but this project was assigned to me by my project supervisor, Dr. Karen Wright.<\/p>\n How much time was spent in the lab\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Due to the dissertation split my total compulsory lab time amounted to 80 hours spread over 3 weeks.<\/p>\n What I investigated\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n I don\u2019t want to give too much away just in case there is anybody reading this who is researching a similar area (can\u2019t be going giving unfair advantages now, can I? ;D) but my investigation concerned the well-researched endogenous cannabinoid system. More specifically the mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) and protein kinase B (PKB) pathways and how cannabinoids, namely the synthetic cannabinoid CB65, may or may not influence the viability and invasiveness of the Jurkat leukemic T cell line via these pathways.<\/p>\n A typical day involved\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Carrying out typical cell biology techniques, e.g. cell counting; stimulation of Jurkat cells with the CB65 cannabinoid followed by lysing the cells; SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting using the Western Blotting of proteins method; and regular assessments of cell viability via metabolic activity assays.<\/p>\n What I discovered\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Based on the results of my experiment, the synthetic cannabinoid CB65 helped the Jurkat cells to proliferate by acting on the CB2<\/sub> receptor, therefore suggesting synthetic CB2<\/sub> agonists may be useful for the clinical development of anti-cancer therapeutics.<\/p>\n Feedback from supervisor\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Both Karen and Christian were extremely supportive and provided regular feedback throughout the entire writing process. Having a supervisor there to touch base with and keep yourself on track is something you should not take for granted. Use them as much as you physically can and I guarantee you will reap the benefits when you come to your write-up.<\/p>\n If I could do it again I would change\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Being more proactive with my allocated lab time and thoroughly ensuring I know what I am doing each day before entering the lab so I can use my time more productively.<\/p>\n Any hints or advice?<\/strong><\/p>\n When writing up your final report try to focus on writing one section at a time. I say this because I made the mistake of attempting to synthesise and write little bits of each section all at the same time – this led to a very stressed and confused Jed. This strategy may work for some but I discovered my highest productivity levels when I sat down and concentrated my efforts on writing my introduction, for example. Multitasking is a myth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My Dissertation Experience Supervisor(s) and project title(s): Karen Wright – The endocannabinoid system as a therapeutic target in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (Cell Biology) Prof Christian Holscher \u2013 The pathophysiology of depression and current therapeutic approaches (Neurobiology) Why I chose these topics\u2026 I\u2019ll start with a brief overview of both my projects because my dissertation set-up Read more about My Dissertation Experience – Jed Winstanley<\/span>[…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":626,"featured_media":198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dissertations"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/bls-student-blog\/files\/2017\/11\/23379682_10155878281794166_417080750_o.jpg?fit=996%2C996&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9dFBD-3b","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/bls-student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/bls-student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/bls-student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/bls-student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/626"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/bls-student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/bls-student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":199,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/bls-student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions\/199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/bls-student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/bls-student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/bls-student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/bls-student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}