Hi all!
Well, it's winding down here at the STAR program at MCG. Tomorrow, we all have to present our projects during the poster session. I have my poster printed and my speech ready. So now I'm just practicing.
I cannot believe that I am done with the STAR program! Nine weeks have gone by so quickly! I also cannot believe the amount of research I was able to do while I was here!
It has definitely been a good experience. The research has been helpful for me in deciding what I would like to pursue as a career (I'm leaning towards medicine right now) and I have met some really awesome people.
My mentor has been fantastic and has made sure that I am ready for tomorrow. We have been working on my poster and what I was going to say for the past two weeks! Yesterday, he also sat me down and went over questions that I would be asked. I feel so much less stressed now. Whew!
Other than prepping for tomorrow, I also have been packing up my things and getting ready to go. I cannot believe that I shall be moving out on Friday! Then off to Florida to be with my parents for the rest of the summer. I'm excited to be able to relax before I head back to school in the fall and start at the Atlanta campus.
Well, back to work. Gotta practice for tomorrow!
Peace and love,
Lizzy
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Friday, July 9, 2010
Oxford is Heating Up for Incoming Students!
Happy summer everyone! Oxford's campus is gorgeous right now with the sun shining through the trees and lighting up our quad. There are also some exciting changes taking place on campus and I can't wait til later this summer when I'll get to see the new and returning students' surprised faces. The library, Branham and East, and the JRC are all being renovated as I type. This includes new furniture, carpeting, new paint, and updated features. These new updates will really add to the campus and I can't wait to see the final products in each building. We are also having a lot more visitors on campus since life for rising seniors isn't busy just yet. So I thought I would share some tips for when you visit a college campus:
- Meet your admissions advisor! This is the person assigned to your particular state or school. They will be your contact throughout the application process so make sure you meet them.
- Come prepared with questions
- Eat a meal on campus
- Bring a camera- this will help you remember what each campus looks like
- Talk to as many students and faculty on campus- they are the ones that know the place best
Happy visiting!
- Meet your admissions advisor! This is the person assigned to your particular state or school. They will be your contact throughout the application process so make sure you meet them.
- Come prepared with questions
- Eat a meal on campus
- Bring a camera- this will help you remember what each campus looks like
- Talk to as many students and faculty on campus- they are the ones that know the place best
Happy visiting!
Sunday, July 4, 2010
From the Land of 10,000 Lakes
I have arrived and have been enjoying the Twin Cities for two weeks now. Minneapolis is a really cool city, and I am having a wonderful time. There are cute little restaurants and old buildings and the Mall of America, and the Mississippi River, and lakes, and museums. So many things to see and do! However, I have also found the city to be much more expensive.....
I have decided I would like to have a summer home here in Minnesota on one of the lakes. I absolutely loved Lake Itasca and didn't want to leave once my two week course was over. After being in the woods for two weeks coming to the big city was kind of shock. I had gotten used to watching the sunset from a canoe. Absolutely beautiful. But as I said, Minneapolis is a lot of fun.
My research is ok so far. I have learned so much about the immune system in just two weeks. I've made some presentations and (after FOUR attempts) finally succeeded in producing a satisfactory western blot. I have one more week until I start my very own project (I'm still just helping my mentor).
Anyway, here are some pics of the beautiful lake!
Summer in the City
Hey Y'all,
I did a post a while back, hinting at some places I'd be visiting in the coming weeks. Well, I'm happy to say that I am back at home—safe and sound. I'm also ready to reveal my mystery destinations.
Destination number one may have been the easiest to figure out. It was Atlanta! I’m from a very small town in the Deep South so it was nice to be in the city again. I spent two days in Atlanta, my home town and the location of Emory University, attending the Communities in Schools Summer Training Institute. This is actually a special conference for educators but I was asked to attend because I received a scholarship from the Wal-mart Foundation and Communities in Schools National as a high school senior. The trip was very brief but it gave me a chance to relax in a nice hotel and do some networking before moving on to my next city.
The following day, I woke up at 9 AM and drove to the airport. From there I passed through security and boarded my plane to Washington, D.C. This particular trip was sponsored completely by the Gates Millennium Scholars Program and really gave me the opportunity to do more networking, do some career exploration (my future is undetermined, as of now), and rediscover the city that I hadn't seen in years. About 30 other scholars and I were given the opportunity to attend the American Library Association's Conference and Exhibition that went on over our 5-day stay.
The conference gives students of Library and Information Sciences and Library/Information Science professionals the chance to experience the latest and greatest developments in their fields, meet famous authors, and attend sessions that encourage library improvement and advocacy. Over 23,000 people were in attendance and it was just about as amazing as it sounds. Thousands of sessions went on throughout the week and I wanted to attend every single one of them but I could only go to a few. When I wasn't in sessions I was seeing the city with other scholars! In addition to the great learning experience, I made a lot of new friends, and came back with tons of free swag from some of the sponsors at the conference. I had a great time!
I'll be updating more throughout the summer!
‘Til Next Time,
Imani
I did a post a while back, hinting at some places I'd be visiting in the coming weeks. Well, I'm happy to say that I am back at home—safe and sound. I'm also ready to reveal my mystery destinations.
Destination number one may have been the easiest to figure out. It was Atlanta! I’m from a very small town in the Deep South so it was nice to be in the city again. I spent two days in Atlanta, my home town and the location of Emory University, attending the Communities in Schools Summer Training Institute. This is actually a special conference for educators but I was asked to attend because I received a scholarship from the Wal-mart Foundation and Communities in Schools National as a high school senior. The trip was very brief but it gave me a chance to relax in a nice hotel and do some networking before moving on to my next city.
The following day, I woke up at 9 AM and drove to the airport. From there I passed through security and boarded my plane to Washington, D.C. This particular trip was sponsored completely by the Gates Millennium Scholars Program and really gave me the opportunity to do more networking, do some career exploration (my future is undetermined, as of now), and rediscover the city that I hadn't seen in years. About 30 other scholars and I were given the opportunity to attend the American Library Association's Conference and Exhibition that went on over our 5-day stay.
The conference gives students of Library and Information Sciences and Library/Information Science professionals the chance to experience the latest and greatest developments in their fields, meet famous authors, and attend sessions that encourage library improvement and advocacy. Over 23,000 people were in attendance and it was just about as amazing as it sounds. Thousands of sessions went on throughout the week and I wanted to attend every single one of them but I could only go to a few. When I wasn't in sessions I was seeing the city with other scholars! In addition to the great learning experience, I made a lot of new friends, and came back with tons of free swag from some of the sponsors at the conference. I had a great time!
I'll be updating more throughout the summer!
‘Til Next Time,
Imani
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Digging trenches in Jordan!
Hey everyone! Currently I'm in Jordan and have been for the last week and a half, though this is one of the few times I have internet, since I am in Amman for the day. The team this year consists of Oxford Professors Dr. Aaron Stutz and Dr. Liv Nilsson-Stutz, former Oxford student Brittany Mayo, Emory PhD student Joshua Robinson, Dr. Jamie Clark, Anna Trainer (former student of Dr. Aaron Stutz), and myself.
This year in Jordan we are doing test excavations ... which have quickly turned into an ACTUAL excavation. The site we were here to determine whether or not it was actually a paleolithic site, is definitely a site, though what time period we are unsure of, all of the artifacts, which there are TONS of, are very ambiguous, since we are still only a few centimeters under the surface. At the moment, it appears that there are also ruins of a wall structure or a pavement near the surface, we are trying to see how to excavate the feature effectively.
Days start at 4 in the morning, when we wake up so that we can get to the site no later than 5:30 am, since we need to start work early because by noon it is too hot to continue working, since we are working on the East Bank of the Jordan Valley. Working in our cave on the East Bank allows us to see the West Bank from where we are working. Each day some of the team members get text messages on their phone saying "Welcome to Palestine!" the reception isn't that accurate here in the valley haha... Though one day it was a little hairy in the morning, we heard explosions coming from the West Bank an looked over and saw the smoke. Along with a few gunshots and aircraft, we decided that wasn't the best thing to be hearing in the morning coming from the West Bank... but we learned from our dig house's caretaker that it was just the Israelis doing training exercises on their side of the Valley which they do occasionally, and none of the locals seemed worried. It did make for a very interesting morning though! Nothing like a bit of excitement to add to your adventure!
We also took a trip to the ancient Roman city of Jerash and saw the ruins there and the Temple of Artemis, though it was weird because all the writing on the ruins was in ancient Greek and not Latin, which according to Brittnay who is majoring in classics, is extremely strange considering the Romans are usually known for using Latin and writing over everything in Latin.
So as you can tell, a LOT is going on right now! I've posted some pictures below but I will leave the update at this considering I'm exhausted from all the physical work and waking up at 4 in the morning daily! Though I'm having an amazing time once again this year, and even have gotten to see some of the other archaeologists I met last year and chat with them about their projects this weekend, so it was somewhat like a mini reunion for me! I hope you all are having a great summer as well!!
Pictures Below:
Dr. Stutz setting up the grid and grad student Josh
Roman Ampitheater 2 at Jerash
Me in the Temple of Artemis
The Temple of Artmeis
City of Jerash
At work with smoke on the West Bank in the background
Working on the terrace of the cave
Working on the terrace more
This year in Jordan we are doing test excavations ... which have quickly turned into an ACTUAL excavation. The site we were here to determine whether or not it was actually a paleolithic site, is definitely a site, though what time period we are unsure of, all of the artifacts, which there are TONS of, are very ambiguous, since we are still only a few centimeters under the surface. At the moment, it appears that there are also ruins of a wall structure or a pavement near the surface, we are trying to see how to excavate the feature effectively.
Days start at 4 in the morning, when we wake up so that we can get to the site no later than 5:30 am, since we need to start work early because by noon it is too hot to continue working, since we are working on the East Bank of the Jordan Valley. Working in our cave on the East Bank allows us to see the West Bank from where we are working. Each day some of the team members get text messages on their phone saying "Welcome to Palestine!" the reception isn't that accurate here in the valley haha... Though one day it was a little hairy in the morning, we heard explosions coming from the West Bank an looked over and saw the smoke. Along with a few gunshots and aircraft, we decided that wasn't the best thing to be hearing in the morning coming from the West Bank... but we learned from our dig house's caretaker that it was just the Israelis doing training exercises on their side of the Valley which they do occasionally, and none of the locals seemed worried. It did make for a very interesting morning though! Nothing like a bit of excitement to add to your adventure!
We also took a trip to the ancient Roman city of Jerash and saw the ruins there and the Temple of Artemis, though it was weird because all the writing on the ruins was in ancient Greek and not Latin, which according to Brittnay who is majoring in classics, is extremely strange considering the Romans are usually known for using Latin and writing over everything in Latin.
So as you can tell, a LOT is going on right now! I've posted some pictures below but I will leave the update at this considering I'm exhausted from all the physical work and waking up at 4 in the morning daily! Though I'm having an amazing time once again this year, and even have gotten to see some of the other archaeologists I met last year and chat with them about their projects this weekend, so it was somewhat like a mini reunion for me! I hope you all are having a great summer as well!!
Pictures Below:
Dr. Stutz setting up the grid and grad student Josh
Roman Ampitheater 2 at Jerash
Me in the Temple of Artemis
The Temple of Artmeis
City of Jerash
At work with smoke on the West Bank in the background
Working on the terrace of the cave
Working on the terrace more
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Exciting Adventures on the Research Front
Well, it comes a time in every one's research when you get extremely frustrated and you wonder if anything will ever work or are you at a dead end. Let me say that I have felt that way about my research this summer for the past couple of weeks.
First off, the sequencer in our lab, the primary machine I need to verify many mutations for my research, was not working at all. No peaks were coming up and I feared that I would not have any data at the end of the program except for some gel electrophoresis images. While these photos are nice, they cannot conclude if the one-base pair mutation is there or not. Then this week, Lynn, the research assistant in my lab who has taught me so much figured out what was wrong with the machine: the cable was on "test" rather than "run." That's all! We just had to change the cable hook-up and viola! it's working now! Now, I'm quite excited that I shall have data!
Also, for the past couple of weeks, I have been testing primers to find the optimal conditions for them. For the first 15 out of 16 primers, everything was great: I got the conditions down right away. But this one primer just would not work. I must have prepared about 5 PCRs and ran the gel just as many times. But to avail. I would either have no bands (which is quite distressing for a student who always had clear bands in her gels from her labs in general Biology and genetics) or I would have multiple bands. Finally, I gave up on that primer, designed a new one for the same locus of DNA I wanted and the new primer came in today. So, I'm in the process of preparing it.
Then, on Tuesday, I decided to do a PCR of about 10 samples for various genes. I was so afraid that I would mess up again and there would be no bands on any of the samples. BUT every sample produced a band! And the band lengths were just right. I was so excited that I started dancing in front of the imaging machine. Thankfully, no one walked into the room while I was doing this, because then they would have thought that I was insane.
So, I've been feeling a little better about my research. I'm finally getting data. My mentor returned from a trip to Europe and brought me back cookies! And told me to keep up the good work (I had been emailing him daily about my distressing primer situation and the later fantastic gel along with the dancing. I also think that the research assistant was filling him in about how I was helping around the lab). He's off to a convention for the Endocrine Society and I'll see him in about a week. He also wants me to present at his lab meeting when he gets back. And these lab meetings are not just him and the research assistant that helps me, it's everyone who works in the lab, along with collaborators from other labs and Ob/Gyns from the hospital because they help out with the clinical aspect of his research. (My mentor is an Ob/Gyn, but also has a lab to investigate specific puberty disorders)
Well, time to get back to research. I'm sorry if this is boring for all the non-science people out there! But I cannot imagine working outside of the science/medicine world!
Peace and love,
Lizzy-
First off, the sequencer in our lab, the primary machine I need to verify many mutations for my research, was not working at all. No peaks were coming up and I feared that I would not have any data at the end of the program except for some gel electrophoresis images. While these photos are nice, they cannot conclude if the one-base pair mutation is there or not. Then this week, Lynn, the research assistant in my lab who has taught me so much figured out what was wrong with the machine: the cable was on "test" rather than "run." That's all! We just had to change the cable hook-up and viola! it's working now! Now, I'm quite excited that I shall have data!
Also, for the past couple of weeks, I have been testing primers to find the optimal conditions for them. For the first 15 out of 16 primers, everything was great: I got the conditions down right away. But this one primer just would not work. I must have prepared about 5 PCRs and ran the gel just as many times. But to avail. I would either have no bands (which is quite distressing for a student who always had clear bands in her gels from her labs in general Biology and genetics) or I would have multiple bands. Finally, I gave up on that primer, designed a new one for the same locus of DNA I wanted and the new primer came in today. So, I'm in the process of preparing it.
Then, on Tuesday, I decided to do a PCR of about 10 samples for various genes. I was so afraid that I would mess up again and there would be no bands on any of the samples. BUT every sample produced a band! And the band lengths were just right. I was so excited that I started dancing in front of the imaging machine. Thankfully, no one walked into the room while I was doing this, because then they would have thought that I was insane.
So, I've been feeling a little better about my research. I'm finally getting data. My mentor returned from a trip to Europe and brought me back cookies! And told me to keep up the good work (I had been emailing him daily about my distressing primer situation and the later fantastic gel along with the dancing. I also think that the research assistant was filling him in about how I was helping around the lab). He's off to a convention for the Endocrine Society and I'll see him in about a week. He also wants me to present at his lab meeting when he gets back. And these lab meetings are not just him and the research assistant that helps me, it's everyone who works in the lab, along with collaborators from other labs and Ob/Gyns from the hospital because they help out with the clinical aspect of his research. (My mentor is an Ob/Gyn, but also has a lab to investigate specific puberty disorders)
Well, time to get back to research. I'm sorry if this is boring for all the non-science people out there! But I cannot imagine working outside of the science/medicine world!
Peace and love,
Lizzy-
Friday, June 11, 2010
Hello all! I am now in northern Minnesota taking my molecular genetics class to get ready for summer research. I work in the lab from 8AM to 6PM isolating plasmids and RNA, doing tissue cultures, running PCR, gel electrophoesis, basically cool stuff if you are a science nerd :) I am having so much fun meeting other people who share my interests and learning and practicing skills that will be very valuable in my future as a researcher this summer, next year back at Oxford, and beyond undergrad. I am kind of thankful for the weekend because it has been a VERY full week. I am excited to start my project a week from Saturday.
While my research will take place in the Twin Cities, I am taking the class 4 hours north at Lake Itasca, which leads into the headwaters of the Mississippi River. I have been kayaking and hiking, roasting marshmallows, and am planning a long bike ride for this weekend. It has been a wonderful experience so far, and I can't wait for the rest of the summer!
If you are interested, I have some more specifics about my summer research. I will be studying a very involved biochemical pathway that activates transmembrane proteins called integrins that are found in T-lymphocytes. These integrins, when activated, direct the T-cell to antigens and promote cell adhesion. The pathway that activates the integrins is really complicated with many steps, enzymes, proteins, and reactions. I don't know which piece of the puzzle I will be focusing on directly, but I assume I will be studying some sort of gene expression in this pathway. That means real time PCR and isolating mRNA!!!! It's rather complicated, and I was rather unsuccessful at doing those things this week. However, it was my first try, and I am excited to learn and get better and better!!!
Ok no more science stuff for now!! BYE BYE
Susanna
While my research will take place in the Twin Cities, I am taking the class 4 hours north at Lake Itasca, which leads into the headwaters of the Mississippi River. I have been kayaking and hiking, roasting marshmallows, and am planning a long bike ride for this weekend. It has been a wonderful experience so far, and I can't wait for the rest of the summer!
If you are interested, I have some more specifics about my summer research. I will be studying a very involved biochemical pathway that activates transmembrane proteins called integrins that are found in T-lymphocytes. These integrins, when activated, direct the T-cell to antigens and promote cell adhesion. The pathway that activates the integrins is really complicated with many steps, enzymes, proteins, and reactions. I don't know which piece of the puzzle I will be focusing on directly, but I assume I will be studying some sort of gene expression in this pathway. That means real time PCR and isolating mRNA!!!! It's rather complicated, and I was rather unsuccessful at doing those things this week. However, it was my first try, and I am excited to learn and get better and better!!!
Ok no more science stuff for now!! BYE BYE
Susanna
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