Week Six: (July 26 - July 30, 2010) - The Joys Of Waiting (For an Order...)

Hi again!  This week was filled with preparation for the ASE Family Night, as well as frustration due to bizarre lab results and delay of receiving an enzyme used in my PCRs.

7/26/10:  Based off of the lab results obtained last Friday, I ran the 18S and NITS PCRs using a 2 ng/μL concentration of the sample DNA, as well as using 25 cycles.  The gel showed very bizarre results.  Only one of the samples showed the 18S signal and the NITS positive was very faint with several other bands of unknown origin.  Dr. Herfort and I attributed it to the old DyNAzyme Polymerase I was using (the chemical cocktail mix that enables replication of DNA), so I will re-run the PCR tomorrow using some of Matt’s DyNAzyme.

7/27/10:  In order to make sure the results were correct, I used a 1, 2, and 3 ng/μL concentration - 1 ng/μL because I have already run those PCRs and 3 ng/μL because it should give a signal.  Instead, the results showed that only two samples gave an 18S signal, one that had a 1 ng/μL concentration, the other having a 3 ng/μL concentration.  After thinking and talking extensively with Dr. Herfort and Dr. Zuber, we decided that the DyNAzyme was of no use, and that I would have to wait for the new order to come in, which is supposed to be on Wednesday.  Today I also talked with Dr. Herfort about the upcoming ASE Family Night, which is where all of the interns present their research so far to their parents and other students.

7/28/10:  Today… the DyNAzyme didn’t come, and it’s supposedly not coming until next Tuesday.  Because of this, I was working on the presentation for the ASE Family Night, as well as helping Sheedra clean sampling bottles.  Tomorrow I am supposed to go with her and Dr. Herfort to go sampling the water at Ilwaco Harbor and near Astoria.  We will be using the same methods as last week.

7/29/10:  I got to CMOP at 8:30 or so to help Sheedra and Dr. Herfort pack up the sampling bottles.  This time we are using a mesh to filter one set of the Ilwaco Bay samples because of too many diatoms in the water.  After playing around with the mesh for a bit, we found a good method that took us the least amount of time.  We were able to enjoy a fairly long lunch today because of the odd tides - high tide wasn’t until 4:00 PM, when we normally sample, however Dr. Herfort had to be back at CMOP before 6:00 PM to pick up her son from daycare, so we had to sample at 3:00 pm.

7/30/10:  Today was relatively relaxed as I only helped Sheedra filter samples and was working on my presentation for the family night.

Tonight all of the ASE interns, their parents, and mentors that could come, attended the Family Night.  First we had pizza, then we started the presentations.  Even though there are nine ASE Interns, not everyone gave a presentation - Sierra and Julia co-presented, as well as Naomi and Priyam.  The presentations were good and informative, and it was nice to hear about what the other interns are doing.  Dr. Herfort was able to come and hear my presentation, so on Monday I will get my comments back.

Well, bye for now!

~ Deirdre