Update
Here's a quick summary of what I've been doing for the past year.
Got into graduate school at Carnegie Mellon department of Biological Sciences.
Did three rotations.
Rotation 1: Took a loop of DNA, cut a small part out, inserted it into a fly embryo cell line (looks like a small ball with two antennae), raised up a bunch of it, perforated the cells and salvaged the RNA, amplified a section for results.
Rotation 2: Took a bunch of sea urchin embryos in various stages of development, split them into two samples. One sample I perforated and extracted RNA, the other sample I killed and preserved. Took the extracted RNA and amplified a section for results, took the preserved samples, and used an RNA attached to a dye molecule to visualize where in the embryo a specific RNA is located.
Here is a picture of an unfertilized sea urchin egg with my dye molecule attached.
Quicktime?!
Rotation 3: Took a bunch of cervical cancer cells, inserted a loop of DNA that will make one of its organelles glow bright red, and another protein bright green. Looked at it under the microscope while it was growing. Did some tests with drugs that destroyed the cell skeleton, or the organelle. Also made a version of a particular protein that was missing the front end and inserted it into a test to see if it affected the formation of the particular organelle. It did not.
Here is a picture of the cells from the third rotation.
Cancer Cells?!
After the three rotations, I joined the first lab, where I will probably work on flies and cervical cancer cells, and how transcribed DNA is processed into a readable message for the machinery that translates it.
Here is a picture of a fly with a mutation in the gene that is of interest in my lab.
Mutant Fly?!
Other than that, I've been basically hanging out with the other first years, sometimes going to the CMU anime club (as the closet anime fan that doesn't speak but sits in the corner watching anime and playing his Nintendo DS while trying not to look creepy). However, I should probably keep in better touch with my friends in Seattle, since they have more in common with me (sucks to be them).
Finally, here is a picture of Eric.
Eric?!
Got into graduate school at Carnegie Mellon department of Biological Sciences.
Did three rotations.
Rotation 1: Took a loop of DNA, cut a small part out, inserted it into a fly embryo cell line (looks like a small ball with two antennae), raised up a bunch of it, perforated the cells and salvaged the RNA, amplified a section for results.
Rotation 2: Took a bunch of sea urchin embryos in various stages of development, split them into two samples. One sample I perforated and extracted RNA, the other sample I killed and preserved. Took the extracted RNA and amplified a section for results, took the preserved samples, and used an RNA attached to a dye molecule to visualize where in the embryo a specific RNA is located.
Here is a picture of an unfertilized sea urchin egg with my dye molecule attached.
Quicktime?!
Rotation 3: Took a bunch of cervical cancer cells, inserted a loop of DNA that will make one of its organelles glow bright red, and another protein bright green. Looked at it under the microscope while it was growing. Did some tests with drugs that destroyed the cell skeleton, or the organelle. Also made a version of a particular protein that was missing the front end and inserted it into a test to see if it affected the formation of the particular organelle. It did not.
Here is a picture of the cells from the third rotation.
Cancer Cells?!
After the three rotations, I joined the first lab, where I will probably work on flies and cervical cancer cells, and how transcribed DNA is processed into a readable message for the machinery that translates it.
Here is a picture of a fly with a mutation in the gene that is of interest in my lab.
Mutant Fly?!
Other than that, I've been basically hanging out with the other first years, sometimes going to the CMU anime club (as the closet anime fan that doesn't speak but sits in the corner watching anime and playing his Nintendo DS while trying not to look creepy). However, I should probably keep in better touch with my friends in Seattle, since they have more in common with me (sucks to be them).
Finally, here is a picture of Eric.
Eric?!
