Yes. Today, I had my first full day of work (sorta). I woke up at the lovely hour of 8:05AM, showered, and headed to the lab to start my day. My supervisor wasn't there at first, so I just sat around and gathered materials for DNA extractions. When she arrived, we looked over the plates I'd streaked out the day before, and they looked good. I'd used a special media, CLED (Cysteine Lactose Electrolyte Deficient) agar, to test the purity of the E. coli we had. They grow pink on the blue agar (I'm sure Allie would like that!). Since it all looked good, I started with some DNA extractions before our tea break at 10:45.
When I got back, I read some journal articles while I waited for the samples to heat in the water bath, then finished the extractions before heading off to lunch. I had a bagel from a nearby store, which cost 5 Euro. Seems expensive, but so is everything here; and the bagel was awesome. :)
After lunch, I streaked out some more E. coli isolates for tomorrow's extractions. We have 25 more to do, then we can start PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction - amplifies the DNA) to try and find genes for antibiotic resistance. The first one we're tackling is the tetA gene, that encodes tetracycline resistance. Should be nifty. We'll start that segment on Thursday. I'm just excited to get more in-depth into this project.
Sandra let me leave about half an hour early today, since I didn't have anything else to prepare for, and I'd read all the journal articles twice. However, she did say she'd need to give me more articles to read. *sigh*. Oh well. I had a nice bike home, and then just lounged around for a while. I did warm up some mac and cheese that I'd made the other day for dinner, which was good.
Now I think we're about to go see Pirates 3. I've already seen it once...but the alternative is sitting around here wasting time on the internet. Lame. Perhaps I'll understand most of the movie this time around? Haha. Well, better get onto that. I'm going to try and take pictures of the NUIG campus tomorrow and post them, and Fred wants me to take pictures of the lab. So expect those in the next few days.
And thanks to all that commented! Good to see people are actually reading. Cheers!
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5 comments:
Hi Bradley. Sounds like you are on another great adventure. It is now 2PM CST (8PM Galway Standard Time). I am very impressed with your blog. Keep up the entries. They are great.
I have some questions for you to answer in a future entry.
1 - What music is popular in Ireland? Do your friends like your music?
2 - Will you be adding "The Irish Do the Beatles" to your Ipod? (Look up Roy Zimmerman on youtube and listen to his rendition.)
3 - Have you studied any of the anaerobic bacteria families yet (clostridium botulinum and tetani)?
4 - What is the mascot for NUI??? The Crimthans (old Irish for fox)?
Rachel Marsh (Susan's youngest sister) is only 330 miles to your NE in St. Andrews, Scotland, UK. Maybe you could take a weekend tour and meet at Loch Ness.
I am very proud of you. I look forward to more of your "Eiree Stories"!!
GD Larry
do people wear green clothes?
Where did you pick up the e coli? - was it supermacs?
Hi Bradley:
I love your blog. Romper is here at the office with me, too hot to leave him at home. Hope everything is going great, it sounds like it from what I've read. The building you work in looks like a creative space, I like it.
Things have been very busy this week, as usual after I take off. I am slowly making my way through the stuff.
Goodby for now, Love you.
Dad
Hey Bradley.Like the part about the pink. Thats cool that you get to ride your bike everywhere. I enjoy being able to read about what you do. Love you!
*ALLIE*
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