Things get busy (Week 8)

Everything is becoming so busy now. The summer started off at an easy pace and now the stress is beginning to set in. Most days I find myself so busy with things that I don't realize how late it is. The new barcoded primers came in earlier than expected. So, this week Rick and I have been trying to determine the best method of barcoding the samples. So far, things haven't been working too well. I did a PCR with the barcoded primers today and they didn't amplify the DNA. Right now, I'm experimenting with the annealing temperature of the PCR to see if that will help the barcoded primers to work better. These primers won't bind as easily as normal primers because they have a long barcode chain attached to them which makes it more difficult for them to stick.

At the beginning of the week, I extracted DNA from more of the charges. Since some of the first set amplified, it seemed likely that there would be DNA on the rest of the charges, too. However, that will be the last DNA that I will extract for this project, because I need to move on to the final phase.

On Wednesday, Vanessa took a group of interns to OHSU. We went to the Center for Health and Healing on the waterfront and then we went up the tram to the top of hill. Not only did we get several amazing views of Portland, but we also learned a lot about OHSU. We had a tour of the many buildings on the hill and two graduate students from OHSU talked about their work and graduate school. It was especially interesting for me, because I am considering applying to an OHSU graduate program.