7/17/07

Again, worked on GFP and worked with copper sulfate and potassium chloride crystals. Also, took pictures and focused upon our powerpoint presentation as we are all anxious to make this very professional. We will be taking GFP home- relatively stable and will keep in fridge. Am very pleased with the group I am in- both the teachers and the researchers. GFP is not classroom transferrable but is applicable to future lectures in class as it applies protease inhibitors and various bio jargon I have used but never seen in use.

Two labs were going on in parallel this morning. Di worked with Jennifer and myself in creating GFP. Di had put modified e-coli bacteria in a test tube to be multiplied. Then we added it to a flask with a liter of broth. Every hour we checked the bacteria growth by seeing the 600nm absorbtion of a sample. The bacteia had been modified with a plasmid which contained DNA for GFP and an antibiotic resistance protein. The antibiotic resistance was used because an antibiotic was added to the broth to kill any bacteria that was not resistant. After 3 hours there was enough bacteria. GTDP was added, and the temperature reduced. This stopped the bacteria multipling and instead in started to produce GFP.

Meanwhile prof Fromme was running a inorganic crystal lab using copper sulphate.

Today's pics 7/16/07

7/16/07

Today I divided my time between Fromme's lab and Wachter's lab. In Wachter's lab, we are isolating GFP through the use of primers and a broth in E. coli with an antibiotic that the plasmid is resistant to. In Fromme's lab, we were trying to replicate experiments creating inorganic crystals using the materials that would be typical of a high school lab and Dr. Fromme commented on how much more difficult simple experiments then become. She showed us a particular catalog that would allow us to purchase better equipment- not lab quality- but certainly above rudimentary for our work creating copper sulfate crystals. We found out how to apply the terms saturated and supersaturated in the lab setting as well and will be meeting once again with Dr. Fromme at 2:30 PM to review our powerpoint thus far.

7/13/07

Today was rather stressful and we were trying to figure out our presentation. We listened to a grad student present his current data very succinctly- since there were no questions and he was a physics person amidst chemists. We also ate more cake and then tried to figure out what would be best to do for next week in light of our powerpoint and poster session. As such, there was a bit of disagreement between our research groups so we decided to split up. Fortunately, Petra Fromme came to see us and talk with us about how best to do our powerpoint so we had a much better idea and it will be started over the weekend as we have divided the tasks.

7/12/07

We finished working in the cold room to perform macroseeding for PSI crystals which required us to have the hands and steadiness and concentration of a surgeon. I loved b eing in a "different" environment at 4 degrees Celsius and I found it unusual and exciting. Additionally, I got more time to speak with Petra even more on a personal level and find out about some of her amazing "science" stories. We then took her out to lunch and continued to talk about the possibility of having some of our students working with her- networking at its best. Additionally, I believe the professors are very impressed and grateful for the work we have done and the feeling is very much mutual.

Pics

Our DNA! GFP!