Hello to everyone: scholars, advisors, support staff, and
readers. By submitting this, my first post of the semester, I feel like the
spring of 2017 internship has officially begun.
My first order of business was to check in with my laboratory
mentors, Matt and Josh, to debrief the objectives of this semester’s laboratory
work. Coming in, I already had a clear idea of what I wanted to work on.
On Thursday I spoke to Matt, luckily our trains of thought
where headed to the same station. That is to say, they think it would be great
if I continued to work on the laboratory findings that I got last semester
rather than initiate a new and possibly completely different project.
This made me happy because it means that I will have the opportunity
to make sense of all the data that I have been gathering in a thorough and
concise manner.
Last semester I worked on identifying an unknown bacterium
which turned out to be Staphylococcus Aureus also known as S. Aureus. Then I ran it though different DNA extraction protocols
to determine which method would yield more and better DNA material. However due
to laboratory mistakes, including loss of data, I was not able to back my
findings with strength.
On my next post I’ll write about my research on the
bacterium itself, so that you get to know it and are able to relate my future
posts beyond that.
Also, welcome to all the new scholars this semester. Please know that we are here to try to help, I know I speak on everyone's behalf because of the support that I got from everyone on my first semester's internship. And if we don't have an answer, we probably will know who to ask.
Luis
Hi Luis, reading about your interactions with staff, and program participants is encouraging. Being that this is my first time participating in the program, I was a little nervous about meeting everyone but have found staff and students are equally encouraging, helpful and smart. It’s great to be around a group of people who are interested in biology and research. Reading about your project on finding which extraction method would yield greater and better DNA material from S. aureus sounds interesting. I look forward to reading about your project this semester and wish you lots of luck in your research.
ReplyDeleteMary Helen
Hey Luis,
ReplyDeleteWorking on you're last experiment is a great thing you are doing, especially if you didn't quite understand you're information and data the first trial you ran it through. I was happy I did the extraction of Lysozyme my second time around during my first semester at Phoenix College, because when I did it during the summer for one month I practically lost of what my data meant and its conclusion was. Hopefully you don't loose you're data this time