August 2009
1 post
The end of iGEM for me?
It sucks that I am here at college right now writing this. I haven’t blogged in a very long time, but I think I should at least write the ending of iGEM. iGEM has been one of the best experiences ever!! I learned so much about cell movement. The knowledge gained is much better than the $2000 we earned, but that money can help buy books. :D iGEM has really made me realize that I want to go...
July 2009
15 posts
7/30
AYNUR!!! One of the most funny person ever!! Who ever thought science jokes could be so FUNNY! Today was a fun relaxing day, BUT tomorrow, back to work!!! TIME to race to the finish line! Three weeks left for me,but some of you got more time. I think I’m still coming back on Fridays and weekeds though!
7/27
Our daily schedule:
Take care of dicty
Clone stuff
Microscopes
Lunch?
7/21
Finally we see moving cells and glowing cells. Some for the constructs we put into dicty didnt fluoresce red with it had RFP. Maybe dicty dont like our crazy brake or accelerating proteins?
7/20
Microscope assay finally at last! Time to see which constructs make dicty go extremely fast or no movement. Other than that nothing else new going on really.
7/16
If you want perfect mini preps, you have to do the Aynur way. Although I only nano dropped two samples, I got a 490 something for the first one and 350 something for the second one. You just have to wait four minutes after adding P2 buffer, wash with PB twice, spin an extra time after getting rid of PE the first time, and most importantly USE A CENTRIFUGE, NO VACCUMS SORRY! This way takes longer...
7/15
More clonning, more constructs! One fluorescent microscope thing came today. By Friday we should be able to watch the dicty move!!
7/13
All I have to say, WHEN ARE THE FLUORESCENT MICROSOPES COMING?!?!!? We have to see if our constructs work in dicty!
7/9
Oliver tells us that he sees something about the fruiting bodies of the dicty, but all I see are just the same thing. There are big circles, some deformed, big, small, with little tree like things sticking out. There were some with none of these tree like things, but Oliver said that it was like one in a million dicty that would do this, so that means it is not our constructs that stopped them...
7/8
Today, after I stored my Gateway LR transformation plates in the incubation room, I walked by and saw Aynur, Cathy, and Ryan L. They were in front of this gigantice machine, known as the facs machine. This machine is use to count cells and see how much it fluoresces. Transwell is an easy concept to understand, but Aynur says its VERY hard to do. I’m going to visit the other team more to...
7/7
Today we learned about microscopy. Orion knew SO much about the microscopes, every last detail. He even told us he loved microscopes. After learning about all this microscope stuff, Katja taught us how to make a movie of our cells. The cells looked as if it was standing there not moving at all, but when the camera took pictures every 10 seconds, we actually got to see the cells MOVE! Now time for...
7/3
I’m all about working fast and efficently. Today almsot no one showed up to UCSF, so there was no holding me back. I can’t wait till we start working individually. We will have to finish our own thing at our own pace. I want to get assigned many tasks, so we can get things done faster. We don’t have much time to just doing one experiment at a time. Today I showed up at 9 and no...
7/2
We did gel purifications today. When we were at school, it took FOREVER to do these purifications, because we didn’t know what we were suppose to do, maybe. All lab work seems to be a lot easier at UCSF. I think its because we got a lot more space and some fancy equipment. A very important piece that we need didnt appear to be cut, so we have to redo that tomorrow. It’s more important...
7/1
So, LAB WORK makes time go by SO fast, but I love it! We did mini preps to prepare plasmid with our PARTS fused into it. We will put it in to dictys and see what happens. When I’m in the lab, I never knew that I can stand so long. If my feet hurts, that certainly means I’ve been standing FOREVER!
I think research is fun, because we get to do what WE want to do. We need mroe cool parts...
6/30
It felt really weird getting out at 500 today. It seemed too early, but if I stayed at UCSF, there would be nothing else to do. Oliver keeps wanting us to brainstorm even MORE newer ideas tha we can test. It must be cool though, otherwise its not worth trying, so Oliver showed us a website were we can MAYBE look for some cool parts to use. Since home is borign and there is nothing to do, I’m...
June 2009
12 posts
6/29
I find out im on the DICTY TEAM!!! I think Dicty’s are good organisms to work with, because they do reproduce fast and most importantly they can MOVE!!
Today I stayed until 830. We had a lot to do. I’m pretty sure that we will have stay long hours for the rest of the summer! I don’t mind though, because I want to have the BEST project at MIT. Time to WORK REALLY HARD for the...
6/25
Today we did our presentation of our ideas. Our group seemed to be the best prepared with all the materials that we wanted to present. BEST PRESENTATION STYLE!! Good job red team! We worked extremely well together when we presented. Everyone knew what they were saying!! Arthur and Aynur coached us REALLY well. Edna and Ryan worked like a team, so did me and Cathy. Cathy and I was constantly...
6/24
Today was one crazy idea day. First of all, we heard everyone’s ideas. Oliver and Ben shortened the list that every student gave them. Jackie and I won the ideas challenge, by having the most and most thoughtful ideas. We won a prize, but its the ideas that are more important.
We broke up into teams, and we were the RED team! The team consisted of me, Ayinor, Arthur, Cathy, Edna, and Ryan...
6/23
Todays question to start the journal club, “What’s your favorite TV show?” I was like……I don’t really watch TV, so I jsut said the news. After Iowa said he liked South Park, I then recalled I enjoy watching South Park also (when I was youger though). Many of the TV shows the other people likes, I never heard of them before. I think I need to watch more TV, or I...
6/22
WOW, that paper on GTPase signaling pathway was confusing! Good thing Iowa is there to save the day and explain in full details what that paper was trying to say. I’m glad we dont have real teachers teaching us, otherwise it will be boring as heck. I would take scientists teaching me scinece anyday. They make a lot more sense than the teachers.
After journal club, Wendell, gave a speech on...
6/19
This week we learned so much about cell movement and signaling for cell movement. I think we have enough info to start creating our project. We might have another lecture on a few mroe blanks we don’t know yet. We defenitely know enough to start answering those thought questions.
I like how all the teachers teach us until we understand the material throughly. They would keep reexplaining...
6/17
The four hour lectures are not bad at all. It flies by pretty fast, considereing its a lot of new materials. I think this will help prepare us to create a really interesting project. Also, FINALLY we get to do some lab work. It felt a lot more chill working at UCSF, because time was not a factor at all. We can stay as long as we need, and the buddies help guide us. They tell us better ways of...
6/16
It feels like school all over again, but at UCSF we can stand if we want and not sit. The lectures are not too bad, its understandable. Cell movement seems to be really interesting, and I would like to learn a lot more about it. I know it’s complicated, but I’m willing to go through this cram section and come up with a very creative project!
6/15
Today was our first day going to UCSF Mission Bay. We got a tour around the campus, and I though it was big and beautiful! Today was a chill day, and we had time to set up this blog. Can’t wait to starting working in the lab!