Hi everyone, we are now on week 4! This week I have seen some awesome things in the lab. On Thursday I injected a new probe into barnacle embryos. It wasn’t the probe I have been working on creating, but it was one that Dr. von Dassow wanted to test. This probe attaches to histones, which are what the DNA is wound around in the chromosomes. We wanted to see if we could get the probes to change from emitting green light to red light when we shone a violet laser on them. It took awhile of playing around with the laser to get the protein to change color but in the end, it worked! This could let us track if a certain cell always makes the same part of an barnacle. An update on my research project is that the probe is getting close to being finished. I am hoping to start injecting it next week. I have also been working on getting videos of the embryos contracting. These videos are not taken under the confocal microscope but are allowing me to observe what is happening to the embryos when they move. I have been trying to get videos of the embryos when they first start making the wave contractions but so far, they have proved to be to delicate. I am happy to report that I have been practicing getting the embryos lined up on the injection dish and have gotten much better at it! This past weekend the OIMB REUs and the main campus REUs all camped together. On Saturday just the OIMB REUs spent the night. Although we were planning to just go tide pooling on Sunday morning, the tides were so low that we ended up going out on Saturday morning too! On Saturday we went to North Cove and saw many different types of algae, lots of worms, and some brittle stars. On Sunday afternoon we met up with the main campus interns and we enjoyed playing Frisbee and talking around the campfire. When we went tide pooling the next morning, we went to South Cove. There was less algae here and more sea anemones and hermit crabs. Dr. Watts even found an octopus! On Tuesday half of the interns gave a presentation on their research proposal. These presentations were more filled out and detailed than the previous presentations that we have given. Four weeks of chewing over what I am doing and will be doing and what I want to accomplish has made it where I can explain my project in a much clearer, concise way. I know that our presentations were all much clearer and easier to understand this time.
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AuthorHi! My name is Sadie and I just graduated from Central Oregon Community College in Bend Oregon. I am working in Dr. von Dassow’s lab and I am excited to learn about research and cells. Archives
August 2019
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