One Day Till Payday

So I was in lab for a good 12 hrs yesterday, chugging along on my project and hopefully getting good results. I couldn't read my gel yesterday so Dr. Karp had me re-do the DNA preps. This would be fine, except he asked me to do 24 colonies worth. This would be fine, except the preps require day cultures (i.e. cells must grow for 7 hrs) to harvest and prep. This would be fine, except he asked me at 10:00 this morning. Even this would be fine, except that I was out of media and had to make more, which requires me to Autoclave for an hour. I got all the cultures into the incubator at 12. This puts me at a 7:00pm harvest, with at least another hour-hour and a half DNA prep time. Now, I should go ahead and do a digest on all the DNA and run a massive gel. That'll take an hour to incubate, and an hour to run. That will put me at 9:00-10:00pm. Then, I'd have to grow an overnight of any cultures that gave me a hit, so that'll get me out of here around 10:30-11:00. This is not good. I really should put off the digest and gel, but if I don't get any hits off that, I'm behind a week. This blows.

I get paid tomorrow, which may very well the only reason I come in tomorrow. I don't really feel like working 14 hr days and weekends, but I do feel like getting something done here! I plan on getting those CD players from that guy pretty soon, so I hope it works out. Andrew ended up not taking the ninja job and will be working for Brookstone instead. This is good, because he has a job and has one he doesn't have to sell out for. I really feel tired everyday, despite the fact that I run 2-3 miles everyday and have been eating well. I guess it's the insomnia acting up over the summer, but even when I do sleep I feel sorta tired and crappy the next day.

I plan on going to the Nasher sculpture gardens with some of the grad students tomorrow, so that'll be a lot of fun. I'm interested to see their new "Walking to the Sky" and if you're in D-town, I suggest you look too. I hope to get out of here early over the next few days, as this all gets so tedious at times and I wish I wasn't here when things are going poorly for me. I hope people are reading this, because I keep posting like I said that I would. So if you like this tell me and if you hate this tell me...then shove it up your ass, but tell me about it first. Hoon, or one half of soon to be Hoonandsarah had the most interesting article on his away-message today. Maybe it's shit like this that makes me sick to my stomach about people in general. When things get this sick and twisted, even I have to look away, take a few breaths and say, "It could be worse."

The only real relief I felt at the whole article was that these people can't function in our world. The recoil at women in the workplace, speaking like a human (read: cursing and swearing), liberalism, homosexuality, sexuality in general, dating, places where their Jesus isn't well liked, and all the other little fun things that would make their "hell" worth living in. The most disturbing thing is perhaps not these kids in general but in the fact that they breed and squat out their hellish little cookie-cutter clones as fast and long as they can. I don't mind if you're right-wing, heck, I don't mind too terribly if you're a Christian, and even homeschoolers are people too. But look, when you do your best to shelter yourself from the outside world that everyone lives in, it is going to knock down your door, look you right in the eye, and I swear, the look on your face will be priceless as your stomach knots and you wet yourself in the face of the wonder that you rail against. This turned into a rant really quickly and I'm sorry for that, but places like Patrick Henry and Bob Jones should not be allowed to exist in our time. Send this crap back to the stone age. It's enough to make you want to go in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, have a smoke in the middle of their little world with a sign that says "Ask me about my views on philosophy, science and the meaning of life," I really wonder if their heads would explode like melons.


how do I invent a sterility bomb?

Hits Like a Ton of Bricks

Went to an interesting lunch lecture today about E. coli. It was alright but I got there on time instead of early and therefore missed the "lunch" portion of the lunch lecture. It was pizza so perhaps it was a good thing that I didn't get any and instead went back to lab to have some protein mix. The experiment is going along well, although I had to make a run to North Campus today (i.e. I had to take the bus) and get back to get the stuff on ice. I'm checking to make sure that all my DNA for the experiment is facing the right way and wasn't put in upside-down. In other news, Andrew Tolentino, Brian Gore, and I are having a garage sale this weekend to earn us some cash because we're all flat broke. I don't know how you feel about garage sales, but I hate to sell stuff I like for little cash. Mind you, it's mostly books I don't use and clothes I don't wear on my end, but it does speak something to one's sense of style and such when your items either don't sell or sell for such a cheap-o price. I'm not sure which of the two is worse, but I certainly hope to make $150 out of all this (if everything of mine sells, mind you).

Seems like putting our sale on craigslist was a good idea, as I've already sold about all of our books before sale time, and I've gotten a few emails as to times and prices on a few things. I have a positive feeling about all this, and I hope over two days we can get a lot of items sold! If you're that interested in our ad, you can see it here (under Monday 06/27). I hope someone comes to buy our stuff. I've been going to Two Rows a lot due to their idea to sell handcrafted pints for a cool dollar all day/all night on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. It's fun and I went with Maggy Potts, Andrew, Nick Olsen and his friend Chris (from A&M). We had a pretty good time, but I was so tired I don't think I made for much of the conversation starter. Brian got a job after trying somewhere in the rage of about 50 different places. The unfortunate thing is that it's at his old job, surveying land. This entails all day in the hot sun, with poison ivy, chiggers, ticks, and did I mention the sun? So if you know Brian, tell him it's going to be OK. I think Andrew got a job with a security company in Dallas working for their advertisment section. Thats what he says anyway, but I think they're training him to kill ninjas that are always around the Dallas area. I get paid on friday which is good, because I owe my 'rents a fair amount of money, and I need to get a suit for the wedding this next month. I just saw the menu for the rehersal dinner, and I got drool on my shirt. Well, I'm doing better in my frequency of posts, now if only someone will read it all....

Paperwork Without the Paper

I got my MCAT scores back and am quite happy with the way it all turned out. I would've liked a little higher score, but still, I think all in all I came out on top. I just finished my Texas Medical and Dental School Application Service (TMDSAS) thing and will now begin a long period of waiting for schools to like me well enough to come talk to me! I have a 30 page application that is done completely on-line (they don't use paper anymore) so it took a while to type it all out. I've got the 30 page app, my MCAT scores, 5 letters of recommendation, a personal statement, my full transcripts, and a large sum of cash that has to go to all the schools I apply to. I'm looking really heavily at UTSouthwestern here in Dallas or the UT Health Science Center in San Antonio. But really, at this point it's just whoever will take me! I have letters from my genetics prof. Dr. Pierson, my immunology prof. Dr. Weiss, my human infectious disease prof. Dr. Field, one from Dr. Munford who is a world renowned infectious disease M.D. that I worked under, and Dr. Weissler, the chief of the pulmonology division in Dallas. Hopefully I'll have enough to pull my GPA out of the mire and present myself to a medical school. My research will help some but not at the initial number crunch in the admissions game.

Most of my friends are in Austin this summer so it's kinda crazy here with not too much to do and a lot of work at lab. I'm flat broke and I don't get paid before the end of the month, so I need that paycheck to pay the bills I've racked up! I got a pair of CD players (DJ equipment) and hopefully making music will be a welcome retreat. I've been reading a lot of papers but not a lot of books, and I hope to change that next month when I don't have journal club! I miss Austin and all the friends and experiences that come with it. I'm at an odd point of my college career right now and I'm not sure how to approach it. I may get a job next semester or do a shadow program at Brackenridge to try and get some money/experience before I get into medical school. Please feel free to call or email me or post comments, as I'd love to hear from all of you!



Summertime, the living's easy...

Today is a Good Day for SCIENCE!

It's been far too long since I posted last and I've been putting it off like an idiot. I've gotten into a lab here at UTSouthwestern with Dr. David Karp in immunology/ rheumatology. I'm going to give everyone a run-down on my project, in the best terms I can, so everyone can understand me.

You have a type of White Blood Cell called a Macrophage, or MP. These guys eat and kill things that are bad in the body. When certain cells get old, or don't express the right markers, your body kills those bits of itself (all your cells will be new after 7 years) by an action of compact, safe death called apoptosis. Well, many cells in your body, Macrophages included, produce things to keep themselves alive, because your body needs them there. Macrophages produce a small secreted protein called "Apotosis Inhibitor expressed in Macrophages" or simply AIM.

There are cells in your body, called B cells (B stands for Bursar or Bone Marrow -where they are born) which have the job of making Antibodies, the shorthand of which is Ab. Now, Ab is a special protein which looks like a "Y" The arms of the Y are called Fab regions and the body of the Y is called the Fc region. The tips of the Fab regions are really special because they see foreign objects very well. Each Ab is different and all your Abs combined can see over 10,000,000,000,000 different things (that's a lot). Imagine each Y as a lock looking for it's key. The Fc part of the Y can be seen by cells like Macrophages or other White Blood Cells to come eat and kill this thing that is not you. There are 5 types (called isotypes) of Ab in the human model. The Y molecules, although we call them Antibodies are of a class of proteins called Immunoglobulins or simply, Ig. The five types are IgA, IgD, IgE, IgG, and IgM. IgA is found in secretions like mucus, spit, or breast milk. You secrete these IgA to stop bad things (called Antigens, or Ag) before they reach the cells. IgA is secreted from B cells either alone or in a form that looks like two Y's back to back with arms flailing. We have no Idea what IgD does, after 50 years of knowing about it, but it's really not important for anything. IgE is the Antibody that marks worms or fungus for your body to kill them or will also cause cells called Mast Cells to dump histamine and that is why you have allergic reactions to some things. IgG is the most solid of locks, it has a very tight specificity for it's key and can actually cross the placenta from mother and embryo. D, E and G are only secreted in singles. IgM is the least specific lock, but it accepts the most keys and holds them in. IgM is secreted first and then the body will normally switch to IgG. IgM has the amazing ability to be secreted not as a single protein, but in a pentamer. Imagine 5 Y's linked by their bodies with arms flailing in a 10 pointed star! The Y's are held together by a small protein called the J chain.

We never knew about AIM because we only recently (1999) found it stuck to the J chain. The pent. IgM is so large, no one ever saw the little AIM protein in it's mass. Not much is know about how AIM works other than to keep MP alive longer, but we believe that AIM may substitute for the J chain in certain situations. This is where I come in. I am currently building a virus. I'm using a retrovirus (the most famous retrovirus is HIV) to infect B cells. I'm using a hollowed-out HIV virus called a Lentivirus to infect the cells. Before anyone gets all wiggy- the Lentivirus construct is safe. It has been completely gutted, none of the virus remains, it cannot replicate itself inside a cell, and it pretty much harmless. Retroviruses are special because they contain an amazing protein called reverse transcriptase which has the ability to inject viral DNA right into your DNA and become part of you on the molecular level. Well, instead of inserting viral DNA like they normally do, I have replaced the virus DNA with the human gene which codes for the AIM protein. I'll take the new virus and give it to B cells which don't have the ability to make the 5 member form of IgM and if they use the AIM and then suddenly begin to produce the pentamer form, then I've just made a HUGE breakthrough in immunology and I'll probably get my name on a paper.

So that's what I'm doing with my summer project. Post a comment if you got it all or want me to explain something else!


Language is a virus from outer space