I am working towards a cure for hepatoblastoma by testing medicines on a quail assay I have been developing.
My work focuses on a quail assay used to test drugs on hepatoblastoma. The first trial in building the quail assay is to have a reliable way to prepare the eggs. The original method required a great deal of dexterity and was typically performed by one our more skilled lab members with surgical experience. The device I built allows anyone to prepare the eggs after just one training session. Next, I had to get the tumors to grow reliably so that we could tell the difference that the drug was causing. We tried a variety of methods before settling on this specific tumor module we use now. To improve the scalability of the assay we are going to try to construct automated equipment to do the experiment for us. We have also been preparing a manuscript for the quail egg assay so that we can share our research with the scientific community. Already we are trying new experiments on the quail assay and we are excited to see the results. I am excited about writing a manuscript for the quail assay.
The work we do is personal because of our supporters. People all over the world donate to us because they have faith in us finding a way to help sick children, and I will do what I can to live up to our supporters’ aspirations. I would like to thank the Macy Easom Foundation, they have supported me at cc-TDI and helped me grow as an engineer, scientist, and person. I would also like to thank Addie’s Fund for helping me get the supplies I use in the lab.
