Counting White Blood Cells on a Microscope
Author: Wyatt Boehm | Major: Biology | Semester: Spring 2024
Over the course of the Spring 2024 semester, I have done research with my mentor Dr. DuRant and graduate student William Kirkpatrick. This semester I mainly focused on data collection. This entailed counting the different types of white blood cells on a slide of blood taken from a baby eastern bluebird. In the future, I plan to look at the relationship between parental behavior and the development of the immune system in baby blue birds. As a biology major and pre-medical student, I find this research to be very interesting. I enjoy doing research that relates to biomedical research, through looking at immune development, while mainly focusing on a more ecological side of biology.
When first looking for research opportunities, I knew that I didn’t want to constrain myself to biomedical research just because I was a pre-medical student. When talking to my professor in my general biology class she directed me to my mentor, Dr. DuRant, because I had expressed an interest in doing research with birds. Dr. DuRant was very kind to take me into her lab and I worked closely with William Kirkpatrick to choose a topic.
During this process, I learned a lot about my research topic and the process of research in general. This past semester I have collected data using blood samples from eastern bluebirds at day 5 and day 10 after they hatch. When going through these slides I am looking for 5 different types of white blood cells. These include eosinophils, lymphocytes, basophils, heterophils, and monocytes. I use a baseball counter and count the different types of cells until I get to 100 total. Additionally, we have equipment that monitors the temperature of the nest, and that data is used to look at when the mother is on and off the nest.
During this time, the biggest challenge I faced was getting used to going through literature. When first choosing my topic with my mentor, I found it difficult to find information on the topics I was looking for. Dr. DuRant and William told me that being able to find peer-reviewed literature quickly and understand what you were reading took practice. This is something that took me a while to get good at. Now I have learned what resources I can use to help find information on the topics I am interested in.
Throughout this semester my mentor Dr. DuRant and William, both played a big role in my research. They were there to answer any questions I had about my research topic and about different lab techniques. William spent a lot of time teaching me how to identify the various types of white blood cells in the slides with blood samples. This was difficult for me at first, but now I am much more confident in my ability to identify the different types of cells.
Looking forward, I plan to use all the data I have collected this semester to analyze the relationship between parental behavior and immune development in the eastern bluebird. To do this I will work closely with William and Dr. DuRant to create a statistical model for the data that has been collected. I am excited to continue my research next semester and hope to keep learning much more both about my topic and about work in the lab.