I interned during the summer and part of the fall of 2008 with Lorena M. Havill, Ph.D., in the Department of Genetics at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. Today, the Institute is considered to be one of the leading independent biomedical research institutions in the United States and the world. Dr. Havill is a physical anthropologist doing biomedical research. For the most part, the work of Dr. Havill and her laboratory, the Osteoporosis Genetics Lab, is devoted to studying the genetic and environmental bases for osteoporosis.
I was very interested to learn about bone histology- the anatomical study of the microscopic structure of the tissue, as well as the workings and practices of a research laboratory. I believe that learning good lab practices in such a rigorous environment can absolutely translate back to the anthropology labs and that the organizational skills would be helpful in any sort of research. More generally, I have always been interested in the work of the Institute, having lived most of my life in San Antonio and hearing of its research. It was exciting for me to be able to play some small part in the important work being done there.
Dr. Havill’s laboratory, the OsteoLab, as it is referred to, is dedicated to understanding the genetic and environmental factors underlying characteristics and development of the bone disease osteoporosis, mostly using the baboon population as a model for humans. Baboons have a number of genetic and physiological characteristics in common with humans that make them an ideal model for this research, including similar skeletal anatomy and bone fracture properties, a relatively long life span with similar bone maintenance and age-related bone loss, similar menstrual cycles and hormonal changes with pregnancy, and a natural menopause. The baboon genome has many areas of high similarity to that of humans, therefore the identification of the genes affecting the disease in baboons should allow for the location and identification of those genes in humans.
My main task was making slides from cross-sections of adult baboon right femurs for histological study, or examination under a microscope. This rather long process involves cutting a section out of the middle of the femur, thinly cutting a couple of sections off of that, grinding them down to slide thickness, and staining and mounting them. As the lab is always getting new bones from necropsy, this job is an ongoing one, with someone needed to create slides to increase the sample size that the lab has for research. Therefore, I was also tasked with teaching my newly acquired skills to the fall interns.
During my internship, I performed many different types of duties in support of the work of the laboratory. Among other things, I did basic lab duties, including mixing chemical solutions for use in the lab and helping to maintain a clean and organized lab environment. Dr. Havill and staff keep a very orderly lab, which I think was good to see and experience, as it contributes to productivity and safety. Maintaining a clean and organized lab environment means that you are expected to follow proper procedures, clean as you go, put items back where you got them, and maintain a lab notebook in which you document daily activity such as what samples you have worked with, what you did with them and where they are now, and other information that would be important for you or someone else in the lab to be able to refer to later on. I also learned the importance of being diligent in following safety procedures and of pacing yourself; trying to do too much at once can lead to both sloppy work and lapses in safety.
Tasks that I often worked on include transferring and cataloging various types of samples in the freezers, helping to store processed blood parts for later testing, preparing materials for the collection of tissue samples, and preparing bones for storage in the freezers. I also did a lot of bone processing, which could also be described as making them presentable. This is done because Dr. Havill is building a collection of baboon skulls for display and also wanted to assemble a complete baboon skeleton for comparative and display purposes. I learned quite a bit through observation about musculoskeletal anatomy and other interactions of soft tissue with bone that I had not expected to. My experience also taught me more about comparative skeletal anatomy, or how the baboon skeleton is different from the human skeleton.
I found Dr. Havill’s work to be an intriguing intersection of anthropology and biology. I really enjoyed my time in her lab and feel that it was a valuable experience. I learned some practical skills and even had the chance to observe features of anatomy that I never had before and apply my knowledge of human bones to make note of similarities and differences between the human and baboon skeletons. I have also found that I am interested in learning more about the potential use of histology for the determination of age in forensic anthropology. There is some literature on the subject, with conflicting opinions, that I may look into further to determine if it could be a practical avenue of study. My knowledge of the slide-making process could certainly be useful in that context.