Peddie EXP Summer 2018

Hello good people! Are you ready to read lots of science? Because today I'll be describing my research in more detail. So, let’s get right to it. These past two weeks I’ve been working with a grad student, Nengyi, on the more advanced section of my project. In this part, I’m looking at the data that’s been gathered and trying to find interesting trends. Specifically, I’m finding an approximation of the total redshift at specific points based on spectrograph data, which tells us how the plasma at that point is moving. By studying this redshift we can see how the flare loops move, and whether there’s anything interesting to analyze there. This involves the data from the IRIS satellite, which has a built in spectrograph. A spectrograph separates light by its frequency. Because different elements put out different wavelengths of light when energized, we can isolate specific elements and analyze their bands. Here’s an example of the different bands for some random elements ...

**Sorry for the weird format, Blogger did some weird stuff to my post that I had to fix** After an action-packed first week, it was time to get down to business. When I walked into the office on Monday morning, nobody was there. I made efficient use of my morning by reviewing additional safety modules. The second module was a laser-focused course, so I completed it within the hour, making me eligible to attain a lab key. I submitted my request for a key and by noon I was completely finished with my orientation-related tasks. Being fully acclimated to the lab, I made productive use of my time. Each morning, I worked with Chris on coding and developing some models to depict the behavior of the MDCS Analog. Each afternoon, I worked with Grace on the laser experiment. I am surprised at how my knowledge of Python has increased 10-fold in just these short two weeks. My confidence is soaring, enabling my ability to contribute to the project. Cesar has been monumentally helpful...

My second week’s been a bit tedious. I finished scoring behavioral videos way before my postdoc, Giulia, thought I’d be done, which she said was impressive, but also left her with almost no work for me to do. On the bright side, I’ve gotten really good at reading literature and grasping main ideas, so I don’t feel like a complete dunce anymore at meetings and journal clubs. Giulia says that once my fingerprints get processed through their system, I’ll be authorized to work on the benches, where I can actually get my hands dirty, so hopefully that happens soon. On another note, I’ve been getting more time to explore center city, and had a really great cheese steak last night, but it kind of went downhill from there, and now I’m really regretting not getting the taco salad instead.

Week 2 Week two was mostly about moving to the new lab and helping people set up their equipment. Even though I did some coding here and there, I learned a lot about lab equipment, lab safety, and just the lab in general. I had to be really careful with some equipment because some of them are worth 250000, which is pretty crazy. My PI told me that I will probably start taking data from there after we are done with setting up the whole lab. I got to know that the area is really nice: found some good places to eat, things to do when I am bored, and so on. Even though I only have 4 weeks left, I feel like I’ve already learned a lot and I will learn even more for the next 4 weeks. This experience has already been really valuable.

This last week, I spent a majority of my time reading literature, which was kind of hard considering it was about 85 degrees and I was getting antsy about getting outside and into the pool. However, on the nicest day this week (Tuesday), there was an accident in the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel, which I use to get to work, and the whole thing was closed. Keep in mind that I was on my way to work at this point, and got hit with an hour and a half long turnaround. I ended up working poolside from home, which was a nice little surprise. This same week, my family's old neighbor came to visit from North Carolina, so he's been hanging out with us. Wednesday, I decided to head out with my cousin to downtown Annapolis, which is about 20 minutes south of where I'm living. It was a beautiful day and my cousin recently got a volkswagen bug convertible, so we were cruising around with the top down. We went to a "small plates" restaurant (like tapas) called Levels. There, we got ...

My second week in the lab has been great. On Tuesday, I talked with Dr. Bouchard, my PI, as well as as my two grad students and another student about our projects. I will be looking at AKT-GFP and how it affects mTORC, and therefore how it effects the replication of HBV. In order to do this, I need the new HepG2 cells (cancerous liver cells). While I wait for those to be cultured, I spend my time observing what other lab members are doing. At the end of the week, I observed Danyelle, one of the grad students I’m shadowing, do a western and native blot. A western blot detects denatured proteins, whereas a native keeps the proteins intact. At the end of the day Friday, we checked to see if we could detect proteins on both the membranes from the blots. The native worked but the western didn’t, so Danyelle had to redo the western over the weekend. Also during the week, I got to watch how cells are frozen down. This is useful because certain cells grow really fast, and it isn’t always nece...