Bugs and Benchwork

What 10 days of student placement with PEARG has taught me by Adrienne Franks

When a hobby entomologist looks for a laboratory technician student placement, Pest and Environmental Adaptation Research Group (PEARG) was simply the best choice. As I wrapped up my Diploma of Laboratory Technology, I was excited to join PEARG for a busy 10-day placement of medical and agricultural entomology across the two laboratories. Cute and tiny spider mites, keeping aphids happy, more mosquitoes than I am used to, all things Wolbachia, and supporting important research projects that focus on how to prevent viral infections, like Dengue Fever, from spreading. A whole new side of laboratory work was scheduled ahead of me and I was excited to finally be getting started.

During my diploma coursework at RMIT I had conducted many conventional PCR and gel electrophoresis tasks, but at the Molecular Laboratory I was introduced to, and able to perform, quantitative PCR (qPCR) and digital PCR (dPCR) on various insect specimens that may or may not have a Wolbachia bacterial infection. I was excited to follow the entire process from sample preparation all the way to data analysis, along with the fact that I felt like a bit of an insect detective. I was shown and operated modern automated equipment such as the EZ2 machine that breaks down plant specimens to provide RNA samples, as well assisting some ongoing trials for a benchtop Isothermal Assay machine that tests to see if mosquitoes have a gene mutation that makes them resistant to insecticides. Throughout all of these molecular tasks I found my pipetting knowledge and skills changing immensely. This is a skill I’ve been wanting to refine, not knowing exactly how precise and broad this technique can be: Manual pipettes, electronic pipettes that multidispense, multichannel pipettes, pipetting volumes as small as 0.2 µL. I have gained a very well-rounded insight into some of the ways this molecular laboratory supports research, and I am very grateful to Dr Nancy Endersby, Dr Qiong Yang, Monica Stelmach, Mason, and Kelly Richardson who have generously shared their knowledge and time to support my experience.

Now over to the second Hoffmann Laboratory, or “Pest Lab”. Spider mites were a complete stranger to me before commencing placement and following two weeks of following and upkeeping their colonies I’ve got a list of ‘strange spider mite facts’ that I still think about. My favourite part about these little creatures was that a larva looks like a tiny little egg running around at full speed. The aphid maintenance game was all about how to keep them happy. I collected perfect leaves from the shade shed, creating new habitats, and trying to rehome them but ultimately, I spent a lot of time chasing around aphids that would roll away even at the thought of picking them up. The mosquito tasks surprised me. My first day induction tour I saw two or three people blood feeding with their arms in the mosquito cages and I was a little unsure what would be ahead of me. I imaged myself getting ankles full of mozzie bites and spending all day swatting them away but it turns out mosquitoes are really interesting. There are many people here at PEARG who focus on these insects, doing such an extensive variety of topics I’d sometimes see five experiments happening all at once, and that wasn’t even the half of it! I’ve set up large scale tests to see how many eggs different female mosquitoes lay, measured wing size, looked at and managed colonies of their full life cycles, and looked at how changing variables like temperature may impact how they adapt. Thank you to Alex Gill, Perran, Apeksha, Yuwei Wu, Lucy Hayward, and Ren Coakley for showing me how you maintain so many different colonies and allowing me to see what it means to be in Pest and Environmental research. A special thank you to Xinyue Gu for kindly offering to introduce and demonstrate a new-to-me process called microinjection. An unexpected add-on to this learning experience that I find equally unusual and interesting.

Overall, my 10-day placement experience has been well balanced, broad, meaningful, and very helpful. I am certain the technical skills and knowledge I have gained will support my career in laboratory technology, and I am inspired to keep looking into why insects are the way that they are, and to continue studying to someday do my own research.