Vol. 18, No. 36	July 8, 1999

Memories of working in a mouse lab

Peggy Sacher in an animal research laboratory

For two summers and countless weekends, Peggy Sacher, education, donned a white lab coat, carried a clipboard and altered her own life cycle to find out. The problem is, she never did. She left for college before the research was complete.

Sacher worked as a lab assistant to a research gynecologist in the mid-1960s, starting when she was a Salt Lake City high school junior. She was hired by the Medical Center of the University of Utah to clean mouse cages and glass slides.

The laboratory was examining the effect changes in the length of a day and corresponding lifestyle conditions had on the reproduction cycles of mice. She left for college before the experiments ended, but by that time she was taking cell samples, examining them under the microscope and compiling data.

Her experience started in the spring of 1965, when Sacher decided she needed a summer job. She heard about the laboratory assistant position through a friend and applied immediately. "I was entranced by it because I'm interested in science and math," she said. "The pay was great, $2 an hour. I washed the cages and cleaned slides."

The experiment used two sets of mice. The control group lived a normal 24-hour day. The experimental group started the week in sync with the control group. But, as the week went on, the experimental group's daylight hours were shortened, so that the mice were living a 28-hour-a-day, 6-day week and were going to sleep when the control group was waking up.

Because the experimental group mice had to experience normal activity within their abnormal schedule, Sacher had to clean cages and feed the mice at odd hours. "Sometimes I had to go in at 10 or 11 p.m. If I was at a party or on a date, my date and I would have to go to the mouse lab."

The mouse lab job gave Sacher a certain status among her friends. "They treated me like I had a brain. Most of my friends were still babysitting to make money."

Now that she's an adult with summer-job-age children of her own, Sacher said she looks back on those days with fond memories.

She says she still loves how special the job made her feel, how she always found it interesting and how it gave her the opportunity to turn her friends blue.

The powder she used in the lab as a culture stain for cells could be put into capsules and inserted into things. Sacher inserted them into the showerheads of several friends.

The powder is harmless and, although they weren't aware of it as they washed, the substance did turn their skin blue.

-Barbara Garrison