Cath-tastic.
Eat. Sleep. Chemotax. iGEM ♥
Jun 22nd, 2009 @ 11:59 pm
That’s a Rap
Though I decided to take Jacinto’s brain power for labwork-advancement purposes, I think Oliver’s ability to interact with and teach students is a pretty envied “superpower”. Iowa’s sense of humor is tempting, as well. But I think a lot of people who attended the meeting this morning possess enviable traits. Better watch your back in the Lim Lab. Of course I’m referring to Ben’s query: “If you were to take any trait from any person in this room, what would it be?” It would be like creating a construct with a desirable trait for ourselves.
Journal club ran somewhat slowly this morning. I blame Monday. Iowa put a lot of effort into helping us understand the figures and ultimately, the big picture of An inducible translocation strategy to rapidly activate and inhibit small GTPase signaling pathways. GTPases may be activated rapidly. The rapamycin-induced heterodimerization system is really neat. This system allows for the ability to control when Rac may be turned on, as opposed to having constitutively active Rac injected into the cells. The video results of the different constructs for the experiments were impressive, as well. Definitely much more effective than Figure 3. Another thing to keep in mind is adaptation, specifically adaptations of signaling systems. The iRap induced system not only allows for control; it also allows for observation of an acute response versus an adaptation response. For further information, please visit David’s blog.
After lunch, Oliver gave a short, but important, presentation on our cloning strategy this year. I found it mega helpful, because this information wasn’t explained to us last year. Come to think of it, my knowledge regarding the parts and cloning methods was fuzzy. Unfortunately, I dozed off for a bit during the presentation. Food coma is unfriendly when important information is presented. I’ll be sure to take a closer look at the powerpoint in case any questions arise.
As for labwork, some of the team’s parts need to be redone. We picked up ten colonies each for the remaining thirteen parts. Tomorrow will be a mini-prep-filled afternoon, and perhaps we’ll have time for digests. After Allen and I split our dictyostelium cultures, I jetted back to the Lim Lab to photograph Ryan’s gel for his colony PCR. Jacinto and I collaborated to execute a brilliant prank. We photographed another gel for Ryan, and his reaction was priceless. Absolute confusion. Too bad I couldn’t get the good part on camera. On the brightside, I believe the colonies are successful. The afternoon was nice and chill. I’m glad I got to know some of the kids better, and that Ryan and Jacinto are back on iGem with me this summer. The lab wouldn’t be the same without them. Jacinto wouldn’t be able to pull pranks with me, and Ryan wouldn’t be able to boss me around. Bossy.
NOW. Must do reading and finish brainstorming. My eyeballs ache. Deadlines are lame.
