Last week was the university's official spring break. As a graduate student this means almost next to nothing. It really means a break from going to classes and the "opportunity" to get quality labwork done. During this week I worked mainly on a protein expression experiment. So what does that involve? Well, all (or almost all) proteins created these days come from using bacterial cells to create a whole lot of your protein. I had previously grown some E. coli cells containing a plasmid (stretch of DNA) that could be "tricked" into creating a whole lot of my protein. While growing the cells, and causing the protein production is relatively quick, separating this one protein from all the cellular material takes a few days.
Also, on Thursday of that week, we (members of our research group) attended an annual "Baltimore Area Repair Symposium." In Baltimore, there are several research facilities that study how organisms repair damaged DNA; Johns Hopkins (our group as well as several at the med school and school of public health), NIH-NIA (National Institute of Health-National Institute of Aging), Univ. of Maryland - Baltimore County, and a few just outside of Baltimore. The day consisted of about 20 researchers giving short, 15 minute summaries of the current research/results they are undertaking. During breaks, peripheral rooms contained posters made by graduate students that further highlighted areas of research. There was a longer, keynote address, by a research from my neck of the woods, Dr. Tom Kunkel, who is based in Research Triangle Park, but has professorships at Duke and UNC. The first part of the day was very interesting, probably because it was much more chemistry-based relavent to my own research. The second half seemed to focus so much on specific, esoteric proteins, that I was bored to death.
My training last week was tapered somewhat. The accidental 16 miler from the previous weekend had taken it out of me, and it was time to recover. Of course, the only real tapering I did was not swim, and not lift. My running mileage was pretty much where it's been. Only thing was that my early morning Saturday running (before heading to Annapolis for Coast Guard training) was extremely difficult, probably ghosts from the previous week.
But this week I'm back in the pool and back in the weight room. I'm planning to play around with my weekend long workouts to help keep things interesting and to help pick up the intensity.
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Showing posts with label chemistry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chemistry. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Long Run Lamentations, Visitaion Weekend, Warm Weather
Overall, this was a decent overall training week. Most of the week, I was keeping up fairly well. I struggled to get starting with my weight-lifting sessions; while I got through them, I decided I'll probably take next week off from that.
This has also been visitation weekend for prospective graduate students for the Chemistry department. Many of you are probably unfamiliar with the process, so I'll give you the basics. Once you are except into a graduate program, the situation changes from you trying to get in, to the school trying to get you to come. To this end, departments will bring you to their schools and spend the weekend familiarizing you with their program in order to recruit you. Note, in order to "recruit," you are primarily given overviews of the research the faculty is undertaking. On Friday, there is a poster session, where current graduates illustrate and explain the areas of research of their professor. Then on Saturday (today), the prospectives meet with specific faculty members where they get a more in depth summary of their projects. Right now, they are likely at the Aquarium at the Inner Harbor for a nice meal, followed by some time on the town. Most will be traveling tomorrow.
My past two days of running have been quite interesting. The good news is, the temperature has been perfect for my runs. In the upper 40s, I did not need to wear any "coldgear" (slang for the warmer, moisture-wicking technical fabric for cold temperatures); temperature-wise, I was comfortable in shorts, shirt, and gloves which I found I need sooner than I need layering on my arms.
The bad news was the wind and the rain. Yesterday I stayed somewhat dry (ok, so I got wet, but my shoes did not get soaked, which some how means I decide it's dry). But this morning I probably only got half a mile before I was soaked and my shoes were heavy. The wind was brutal as well; I swear at one point I was running in place.
The weather probably did not help my other frustrations this morning. Originally, today was to be a bike ride with the Team in Training (TnT) group, which got canceled because of the weather, so I decided to do my long run I had planned for yesterday. Planning on approximately 13 miles, and some what unmotivated to do an older route, I briefly planned out a new route - and not just running the same roads in a new way; I would be heading down the eastern side of the city near the med school campus.
Well, so after getting started, I realized I was a little bit more worn out that I had thought, and at about two miles decided I would cut off a little extension I had planned, meaning my run would only be about 10 miles top. However, things did not go as planned. Having run "far enough" I turned back after having just past the hospital (only reaching the edge of the school itself). Instead of exactly retracing my route, I took some roads that I "knew" would cross more familiar roads that I could use to zigzag my way back home.
Bad idea.
Explaining the details here would probably only be confusing, and would do justice to the situation. Needless to say I had multiple cutbacks, did a loop which probably added about a mile, was going south when I wanted to go north, etc. All this while soaked and wind-blown. Oh, yeah, and I needed to get to the lab.
Distance-wise, it did not turn out as an easy day. In summary, I originally planned on 13. Then decided to cutback to about 10. My actual mileage? 16.5.
I should admit, I seeing a new side to Baltimore. My main road to the med campus was Eastern Ave, which runs through/along some neighborhoods (Fells Point, Greektown, Highlandtown to name a few) that looked to have some great places to eat.
Some closing comments:
It was a productive day in the lab where I used E. coli cells to express a DNA polymerase protein. I read two very interesting research articles, and also took an NMR spectrum of one of my nucleotides. My advisor complimented me on both my diligence in reading the literature and on the quality of my spectrum.
Despite 50+ weather, there is still some snow. Mainly from mammoth-sized piles.
For meals next week, I plan on eating Irish-style for St. Patty's Day.
Johns Hopkins has buildings all over the place. JHU's website list four "campuses" in Baltimore, but I have also past my two buildings/campuses not otherwise mentioned.
This has also been visitation weekend for prospective graduate students for the Chemistry department. Many of you are probably unfamiliar with the process, so I'll give you the basics. Once you are except into a graduate program, the situation changes from you trying to get in, to the school trying to get you to come. To this end, departments will bring you to their schools and spend the weekend familiarizing you with their program in order to recruit you. Note, in order to "recruit," you are primarily given overviews of the research the faculty is undertaking. On Friday, there is a poster session, where current graduates illustrate and explain the areas of research of their professor. Then on Saturday (today), the prospectives meet with specific faculty members where they get a more in depth summary of their projects. Right now, they are likely at the Aquarium at the Inner Harbor for a nice meal, followed by some time on the town. Most will be traveling tomorrow.
My past two days of running have been quite interesting. The good news is, the temperature has been perfect for my runs. In the upper 40s, I did not need to wear any "coldgear" (slang for the warmer, moisture-wicking technical fabric for cold temperatures); temperature-wise, I was comfortable in shorts, shirt, and gloves which I found I need sooner than I need layering on my arms.
The bad news was the wind and the rain. Yesterday I stayed somewhat dry (ok, so I got wet, but my shoes did not get soaked, which some how means I decide it's dry). But this morning I probably only got half a mile before I was soaked and my shoes were heavy. The wind was brutal as well; I swear at one point I was running in place.
The weather probably did not help my other frustrations this morning. Originally, today was to be a bike ride with the Team in Training (TnT) group, which got canceled because of the weather, so I decided to do my long run I had planned for yesterday. Planning on approximately 13 miles, and some what unmotivated to do an older route, I briefly planned out a new route - and not just running the same roads in a new way; I would be heading down the eastern side of the city near the med school campus.
Well, so after getting started, I realized I was a little bit more worn out that I had thought, and at about two miles decided I would cut off a little extension I had planned, meaning my run would only be about 10 miles top. However, things did not go as planned. Having run "far enough" I turned back after having just past the hospital (only reaching the edge of the school itself). Instead of exactly retracing my route, I took some roads that I "knew" would cross more familiar roads that I could use to zigzag my way back home.
Bad idea.
Explaining the details here would probably only be confusing, and would do justice to the situation. Needless to say I had multiple cutbacks, did a loop which probably added about a mile, was going south when I wanted to go north, etc. All this while soaked and wind-blown. Oh, yeah, and I needed to get to the lab.
Distance-wise, it did not turn out as an easy day. In summary, I originally planned on 13. Then decided to cutback to about 10. My actual mileage? 16.5.
I should admit, I seeing a new side to Baltimore. My main road to the med campus was Eastern Ave, which runs through/along some neighborhoods (Fells Point, Greektown, Highlandtown to name a few) that looked to have some great places to eat.
Some closing comments:
It was a productive day in the lab where I used E. coli cells to express a DNA polymerase protein. I read two very interesting research articles, and also took an NMR spectrum of one of my nucleotides. My advisor complimented me on both my diligence in reading the literature and on the quality of my spectrum.
Despite 50+ weather, there is still some snow. Mainly from mammoth-sized piles.
For meals next week, I plan on eating Irish-style for St. Patty's Day.
Johns Hopkins has buildings all over the place. JHU's website list four "campuses" in Baltimore, but I have also past my two buildings/campuses not otherwise mentioned.
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