Frozen in Time

"My dissertation was a clinical study performed at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center and is focused on finding nutritional and lifestyle risk factors for prostate cancer among older African American men. The study collected plasma samples from 85 veterans to determine blood levels of specific hormones that are influenced by the diet. My image is an abstract depiction of the Harris Brand -80°F freezer that was purchased with funds I obtained from a very generous seed grant from the Institute for Health Research and Policy (IHRP). The seed grant was made available for UIC pre-doctoral students who need additional funding to obtain materials for dissertation studies. My research would not have been possible without this funding, as my samples were sensitive immunoassays that needed to be batch-processed all together at the end of the clinical study. My image of the freezer was taken on 11/12/2010 and subsequently edited with an application called “percolator” to add the interesting texture to the photo."