Our Team

Our team comprises of Casandra Ong Shieh Ling, Nadiah Binte Shaharuddin and Nur Nadiah Binte Ismail. The advisor of this project is Dr Kenneth Yu.

(I) Overview Of Project

The purpose is to provide the reader with an overview of what you are going to learn through

the project.

Craft a summary of the project that the group is going to work on. It should include

• The focus of the project – what is /are the objective(s) of the project

• A description of the activity that you will be involved in. eg. An experiment, a workshop to

learn how to create an applet, an investigation…

Relevant pictures/ video clips may be inserted to aid the reader to understand project better.

Reference: Project Manual

(II) Our Mission: Part 1

Histochemical Staining

1) What are the colours of the stained tissue?

There were different shades of purple on the stained tissue.

2) What is the pattern of colour distribution in the stained tissue?

The nucleus is darker than the cytoplasm of the cells in the stained tissue.

3) Can you identify which are the nuclei of the cells? What colour are they?

Yes. The nuclei of the cells were stained with a darker shade of purple as compared to the cytoplasm.

4) Can you identify the cytoplasm of the cells? What colour are they?

Yes, the cytoplasm of the cells were stained with a lighter shade of purple as compared to the nuclei of the cells.

5) What are the relative sizes and shapes of the cells in the tissue?

The cells are of irregular shape and they were in clusters. The clusters had many gaps in between.

6) How many different types of cells do you think there are in the tissue?

There are only one type of cells in the tissue.

7) Are there any other observations you have identified? If so, describe them.

The tissue is not solid and entire.

(II) Our Mission: Part 2

Immunohistochemical Staining

1) What are the colours in the tissue?

2) What is the pattern of colour distribution in the stained tissue?

3) Are the colours and pattern of colour distribution similar to that in the first slide?

4) The purpose was to determine the presence and location/distribution of a protein called

vimentin. Which colour do you think represents vimentin? Why?

5) Describe the location/distribution of vimentin in the tissue.

6) What does the other colour(s) represent?

7) Are there any other observations you have identified? If so, describe them.

(II) Our Mission: Part 3

Fluorescence Staining

1) Can you see the tissue using the fluorescence microscope? Does the tissue appear similar to the first and second slide?

No, we could not see the tissue as a whole. The tissue does not appear similar to the first and second slide.

2) Describe what you observe. How many colours appear when using the fluorescence microscope and what are the colours?

Only one colour appeared—blue.

3) What do you think the colours represent? Why?

We think the colour represents the nucleus of the cells because the Hoescht dye that we used binds with DNA, and DNA is only found in the nucleus of the cells. Hence, we think that the blue colour represents the nucleus of the cells.

4) Can you determine what is/are the pattern of location/distribution of the colours in the tissue? If no, why not?

No, because under the fluorescent microscope, only the parts that are stained are visible. In this case, only the nucleus could be seen because it is the only organelle that is stained. So, we could only see the colour of the stained organelle and not the other parts of the cells in the tissue.

5) Are there any other observations you have identified? If so, describe them.

There were no other observations.

(IV) Our Gains

This project has revealed another side of the biological study of cells. It has helped us to understand more about the work of an actual scientist or researcher, who specializes in cells. The methods that we were taught and worked on today were some methods which are commonly used to detect or identify a specific organelle or cell. As we worked on the project and had our project advisor and his students around to guide us, we have indeed gained a lot of knowledge from them as we clarify our doubts.

Generally, we have learnt more about staining of specific organelles, such as which dyes would dye which particular organelle; the application of antibodies to specific substances; the purposes and applications of these methods, such as in cases when scientist want to observe and study the morphology of the cells; how cells are affected and how they would react when cancer cells are present in the tissue; and how to operation the complex microscopes.

This project has raised our awareness of the importance of such research and studies. These research and studies leads to new discoveries that will contribute to medical advancement, to save more lives. With these technology, doctors are able to diagnose illnesses and at an early stage so that the patients can receive treatment.

During this project, we have learnt and obtain a deeper understanding how the tissue and cells react when the some cells mutate. We have learnt that in the early stage of, for this instance, liver cancer, the liver cells will firstly multiplied itself more than usual. This is evident as when we carried out the Immunohistochemical staining, we were able to observe that there were cluttered areas of proteins; this shows that the cancer cell multiple itself more than usual, which formed a ‘thick’ and cluttered area of mutated cells. Before, we were taught that cancer cells would have a longer life line and multiple itself more than a healthy cell. We believe that the knowledge that we have learnt today will definitely be applied in the near future when we do more of laboratory research and have to deal with cells.