Navya and Marcus are in the back of the lab, next to the fume hood. Both are wearing lab coats and purple latex gloves. Navya places some blue pads down on the far bench and lays out some dissection tools. Marcus is bending down, his eyes staring directly into a small cage, watching two black mice run around.
“This is so wild.” Marcus says. “My mom’s gonna flip.”
“So where are you from, Marcus?” Navya asks, as she continues to prepare for the dissection.
“North Carolina. I actually spent a summer working in a lab at Duke when I was in High School. But they didn’t have any mice!”
“And how are you liking the big city?” Navya asks. “Quite the change from North Carolina.”
“Oh yeah,” Marcus replies. “NYC is built different, for sure. But I love it here. NYU was my top choice.”
“That’s great,” replies Navya. “Ok, I think we’re ready to start.”
Marcus stands up straight again and backs away from the mice.
“So we’re just gonna, like, kill them? Will they feel it?”
Navya removes the water bottle from the cage and places it down on the bench. Then she takes the cage lid off and places it on the bench. Then she tilts up the metal wire portion that holds the mouse food, so that she can reach the mice.
“We anesthetize them first,” Navya says, grabbing a mouse by its tail and placing it onto the metal wiring. “The small prick that it’s about to feel from this needle is the most pain it will feel.”
While still holding the mouse’s tail with her right hand, Navya scruffs the mouse with her left hand, placing her thumb and the knuckle of her index finger on the mouse’s neck and pinning it against the cage. Then she pinches the skin of the mouse’s neck tightly, grabs the tail with her right pinky, and lifts up the mouse, all in one swift motion. The mouse tries to wiggle it’s head left and right, but it’s completely immobilized.
“Wild,” Marcus repeats.
“You know, I spent all of grad school refusing to do mouse work,” Navya says, now picking up a syringe off the bench with her right hand. “I’m actually a vegan!”
“What changed?” asks Marcus.
“The science,” replies Navya. “I discovered an interesting signal in the entorhinal cortex of postmortem human brains. That’s a region that’s affected early in Alzheimer’s disease. I wanted to study if that signal is responsible for the Alzheimer’s pathology the develops in that region. But cells don’t have brain regions, so the only way to test my hypothesis is in mice.”
Navya carefully insert the needle of the syringe into the mouse’s abdomen. The mouse lets out a quick squeal.
“I’m sorry, buddy” Navya says to the mouse. Then she presses down on the syringe, injecting the ketamine/xylazine solution into the mouse’s abdomen. Navya withdraws the needs, places the syringe back down on the bench, and lifts up the wiring again. She then places her hand back into the cage and let’s the mouse go; the mouse quickly jumps forward and runs around the cage again.
“Now what?” asks Marcus.
“Now we wait,” replies Navya.
At that moment, Mike appears at the end of the bay.
“Oh good!” exclaims Mike. “You’re showing Marcus some mouse work!”
Navya turns to Mike and smiles. “Yes, throwing him right into the deep end!”
“It’s wild,” adds Marcus.
“Listen,” Mike says to Navya. “I really think it’s time to submit the manuscript. We could go on with these experiments forever. Better to just get it submitted and see what the reviewers have to say.” ‘m really concerned about figure four. I don’t think we’ve got it. I get that catalase is up in the neurons, but I think just be some sort of overcompensation. I think we’ve gotta show a stronger downstream effect.”
Navya removes her gloves and throws them forcefully into the trash bin beside her.
“Seriously? Mike, we don’t have it yet. It’s not enough to show that the catalase is up in the neurons. That could just be some sort of compensatory effect. We’ve gotta show that it actually directly increases tau pathology.”
“I know, I know” Mike replies, timidly. “But, I just… That could take another year, and the lab really needs this publication.”
“It won’t take a year, Mike,” Navya replies despondently. You think I don’t want a publication? I need it for my K99. But the data isn’t there yet, and you know it.”
Mike stands there, silent for a second. Marcus tries to look away, wishing he could leave the bay without it being too obvious.
“I just…” Mike stammers. “Let’s see what the reviewers say.” How do we know that the peroxisomes are causing the behavioral defects? I just think we need to connect those dots a bit more. Just one or two more experiments. I promise.”
“I’m gonna flip, Mike. I really am. How do we know that the peroxisomes are causing the tau pathology? Answer that for me. Please. I’m working around the clock right now. You know that I am. Let me just get the data. It won’t be that much longer.”
“Ok,” Mike replies. “But just… Let me know when you get the results from this experiment. We’ll take a look and discuss again.”
“Fine. But I’m not submitting until I’m confident that the story is correct.”
“Navya, it’s not your decision to make.”
“Well, if you make it without me, I’m gonna quit and go become a bartender or something.”
“Navya.”
“Mike.”
Mike takes a deep breath and exhales slowly. He suddenly notices Marcus again.
“We’ll discuss again after you get the results,” Mike concludes.
“Fine,” Navya replies.
Mike turns and walks out of the bay. Navya continues to stare in the direction that Mike was previously standing.
“The mouse seems to be gasping for air,” Marcus says softly.
“Shit” Navya exclaims, snapping herself back into the moment. “Ok, time to perfuse.”
“Perfuse?” asks Mike.
“Yeah,” replies Navya, pulling the anesthetized mouse from the cage. “It’s pretty wild.”