SUPERBOWL XL CHAMPIONS!

Pittsburgh Steelers -- Super Bowl XL Champions! And my beloved Hines Ward as MVP! Seriously, I don't think I've stopped smiling once today. What an amazing post-season journey it has been, considering that after the Week 13 loss at Cincinnati, I didn't even think they would make the playoffs. And then to beat Cincinnati in the wild-card game, Indianapolis in the divisional round, Denver to actually win the AFC Championship game, and then despite an absolutely horribly played first half... to win the Super Bowl. HERE WE GO, STEELERS, HERE WE GO!

The Value of Time

When it comes to my first laboratory experiences, I'll admit that I was pretty spoiled. My first research experience outside of undergraduate course-related bench work was at The Institute for Genomic Research, one of J. Craig Ventner's well-funded research institutions. During my ten months as a research intern, I was taught that time was considered to be more valuable than cost, in the sense that if one method was pricier but took less time, it was a worthwhile investment. While there was a limit to the amount of funding available, when it came to everyday things in the lab, it was no problem. Instead of running agarose gels which can take some time depending on the size of fragments, we used a BioAnalyzer chip. When preparing samples, I was taught to always prepare more than actually necessary -- after all, if one of your Eppendorf tubes somehow is knocked over, you'll have a spare, instead of having to go back and repeat everything the next day. In addition to funding, we were spoiled in terms of general lab maintenance. If glassware was used, it was just placed in a plastic bin, and the next day it was back on the shelf, sparking clean and autoclaved. In fact, it wasn't until I started my current laboratory rotation that I even actually saw an autoclave with my own eyes (don't worry, I am completely despoiled now, and am a pro at autoclaving my own glassware and all the trash from the lab). My time at TIGR was, to date, the best laboratory experience I have ever had, not just because of the funding, but also because I truly enjoyed what I was doing, and the Howard Hughes fellow under whom I was working took the time to actually explain things to me and let me do some thinking on my own. My senior year as an undergrad, I did research at the National Cancer Institute. While not funded to the extent of TIGR, the lab still did not find itself pinching pennies at every corner. Once again, the general attitude seemed to be that time was considered to be more costly than supplies -- after all, if you can get more experiments done and generate more data, then there is a better chance of securing a grant.
Then I entered graduate school. My first rotation was in the best-funded research laboratory of the entire university, so the experiences were similar to my previous ones. The expensive equipment was available for my use, even though it would be much cheaper to do the same experiments by hand. My second rotation (the lab in which I will be staying for my thesis), however, is slightly different. It's not that the lab has no money, but just that it is much more cost-conscious than any other in which I have worked. Over the past two weeks, I have been busy attempting to make sense of a GST-CBP plasmid sent from another lab, which is the positive-control in an RHA pulldown experiment that I am doing. However, the lab did not send a map (and actually apparently couldn't 'find' the plasmid either, so they just sent crude cell lysate) and so, after a few literature searches, was able to identify the vector used for the plasmid and the amino acid sequence of the fragment of CBP. After generating what I thought was a correct plasmid map, I went to work doing a few restriction enzyme digests. Using my training from previous labs, I made a larger reaction mixture than necessary. Although a mini-gel will only hold 10ul, I used 40ul for my total volume reaction, just out of habit since this was what I was originally taught. The fourth-year student in the lab, who has truly been a savior in terms of helping me with questions and not laughing or calling me stupid when I do things incorrectly, pointed out that if I was only going to run 10ul on a gel, and the only purpose was to check the size of the fragments and I wouldn't need the digested pieces for anything else, it was wasting both the DNA and the expensive restriction enzymes to make more than necessary. Following his advice, I started using a 10ul total reaction volume. Naturally, I pour my a gel for the thousandth time, let it solidify, load it up, turn on the power source, set it to 90V, watch for the bubbles, and walk away. Twenty minutes later I return, and the gel is floating up off the bottom of the gel box, and all my DNA has somehow spilled off. Since, for the first time in my life, I only made the exact amount necessary, I was stuck repeating the digestion. Thankfully the whole process only took about another three hours, but somewhere, the biomedical research gods are looking down on me and laughing.

Also, for those of you who need a little help getting energized before the big game, might I suggest (complete with sound, so don't forget to turn on the speakers!):
The Original Version
The Playoff Version

Student Health Stereotypes

This may be sharing a bit too much personal information, but honestly, today was just too ridiculous to not discuss. In a bit of background leading up to the story (and the part where I may share more personal information than you wish to know), I no longer produce enough progesterone, so without taking progesterone, I don't menstruate. Frankly, as long as it's not causing any other problems, I can't say that I mind at all. However, in order to ensure that there are no other problems as a result, at the end of December I decided to put my university-provided health insurance to use and head down to Student Health. After drawing about a liter of blood for testing (not kidding) and running a bazillion tests, I was referred to radiology for two types of ultrasound to rule out adrenal or ovarian tumors.

This afternoon, I went back to Student Health for a follow-up appointment and to discuss the results of my ultrasound. This is where the story begins.

My Afternoon at Student Health, or Why Every Stereotype You Hear About Student Health is True. A real-life experience in Two Acts.

Location: Examining Room.
Enter: Nurse.

• Nurse: "What brings you here today?"
• Julie: "I was told to make a follow-up appointment to discuss the results of an ultrasound."
• Nurse: "And what were the results?"
• Julie: "I don't know, that's why I'm here."
• Nurse: "But what did the ultrasound say?"
• Julie: "I don't know. The radiologists didn't tell me anything at the time of the testing."
• Nurse: "So then why are you here?"
• Julie: "To find out what the results said."
• Nurse: "So are you in any pain?"
• Julie: "No."
• Nurse: "Then what is the nature of your visit?"
• Julie: "A follow-up appointment. I was told to schedule an appointment."
• Nurse: "For what purpose?"
• Julie: "To go over the results of my ultrasound."
• Nurse: "And what did the ultrasound indicate?"
• Julie contemplates banging head against wall until she has a severe headache, thereby allowing her to state that she is, indeed, in pain, which will appease the nurse.
  

Exit: Nurse
Enter: Doctor (but not the one with whom the appointment was made)

• Dr.: after flipping through chart briefly, "So, the problem appears to be that you do not ovulate, is this correct?"
• Julie: "Yes."
• Dr.: "Are you pregnant?"
• Julie: "Is it possible for me to even get pregnant considering I don't ovulate?"
• Dr.: "I understand that you are a biomedical PhD student. Therefore, you clearly are not in comprehension of basic human physiology. When you are pregnant, you do not ovulate."
• Julie: thinks to self, 'no really? When did 'PhD' become synonymous to 'moron'?'
• Dr.: "Are you pregnant?"
• Julie: "No, I am not."
• Dr.: "Are you sure?"
• Julie: "Yes, I am positive. Last month when I was here, I had a pregnancy test and it came back negative."
• Dr.: "Could you have become pregnant in the past month?"
• Julie: "No. Especially since I don't ovulate, which I do believe is a requirement for pregnancy."
• Dr.: "Why are you here again?"
• Julie: "To find out the results of my ultrasound. And considering it was a renal, ovarian, and uterine ultrasound, I feel like the radiologist may have noticed if I was pregnant."
• Dr.: ponders this for a moment, then replies with "Before we discuss this any further, you need to take a pregnancy test. You will find urine sample containers in the restroom."

Like I said, today just proved that every stereotype about every university student health center is, indeed, true. Oh, and in case you were wondering - the pregnancy test came back negative. Quite the relief - clearly, I was reeeeeeally worried about that.

HERE WE GO!

Here We Go,
Here We Go,
Here We Go Steelers,
Here We Go,
Pittsburgh’s Going to the Super Bowl
Here We Go!

Cheer the Steelers,
Black and the Gold.
It’s time for Pittsburgh’s Heart and Soul.
With Cowher Power,
We’ll get the job done.
This is the year we’ll get that one for the thumb!

Here We Go,
Here We Go,
Here We Go Steelers,
Here We Go,
Pittsburgh’s Going to the Super Bowl
Here We Go!

Roethlisberger,
Is ready to Win
With Ward, Randle El, and Cedric Wilson,
We’ll go to Bettis, Duce, and Parker for a touch down,
And if you get in their way, they’re gonna knock you around.

Here We Go,
Here We Go,
Here We Go Steelers,
Here We Go,
Pittsburgh’s Going to the Super Bowl
Here We Go!

Now the offense is ready to score,
And there’s one thing we know for sure,
If we don’t get it in the endzone,
We’ll get 3 points off of Jeff Reed's toe.

Here We Go,
Here We Go,
Here We Go Steelers,
Here We Go,
Pittsburgh’s Going to the Super Bowl
Here We Go.

We got Farrier, Porter, Haggans,
Polamalu, Hope, and Townsend.
The other team won’t get any ground
'Cause the defense is gonna bring the Steel Curtain down.

Here We Go,
Here We Go,
Here We Go Steelers,
Here We Go,
PITTSBURGH’S GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Breaking News!

I’ve been meaning to write up an update since I returned a week and a half ago about my winter break escape from the lab and my start to the new semester. I had things to say about my trip to see the BodyWorlds exhibit at the Franklin Institute and how I am completely unable to escape thinking about cancer-related issues, as my week in Aruba was tainted as I spent the days laying on the beach, wondering if the UV light was causing thymine dimers, and which repair mechanism (replication fork regression or translesion DNA repair) would be used to fix the DNA errors. However, none of this seems relevant anymore, as I have some Very Big News regarding my career as a graduate student.

Decision making is not something at which I excel. While I can be rather decisive when it comes to certain things (i.e., what movie to see, what to wear, what to pack for lunch), the big meaningful decisions leave me agonizing and sleepless. I’m not the most efficient decision maker either – writing out a list of pros and cons has never really worked for me, and talking to others just leaves me more confused than attempting to tackle the problem on my own. Thus, I have resorted to the highly immature method of pondering and thinking things through until I am completely stressed, and when I can no longer handle thinking about the decision any longer, just picking what is most convenient at that point in time. I’m quite sure that this method will fail me at some point in my life, but to date, I’m doing just fine. I struggled and struggled with the decision of where to attend undergraduate, and after going back to look at one school a second time, was so sick of the decision that I just put down my deposit right then and there (if I had looked at the other school that day, I would have wound up going there instead). The decision worked well for me – I have no doubt that my educational experience would not have prepared me nearly as well if I made the other decision, as I was able to have a well-rounded education majoring in biology and political science, and was able to have fabulous internships which do not exist outside of Washington, DC, including a year of interning on the Hill in the House of Representatives, six months doing research at The Institute for Genomic Research, and a year as a research intern at the National Cancer Institute. I once again struggled with the decision of where to attend graduate school, and ultimately, when I could no longer handle the thought and all other methods failed (polling my friends, attempting a pro/con list, ultimately the coin toss) just went with a school. Now that I am here, I am quite sure that I made the wiser decision when it came to an oncology program, as the cancer resources here are far superior.

Once again, I find myself making a big decision because, after spending weeks going back and forth, it just seemed to be the right choice at the right time. Yesterday, while talking with the PI of my current rotation about the future direction of my project, I made the big commitment decision because at that precise moment, it just seemed like the right thing, and I was sick of losing sleep going back and forth, confused over what to do. Despite having only completed two of my required three rotations (I have not yet been able to find a PI with funding and space to allow me to enter their lab for a third rotation, which was part of the reason why this decision was made), I became the first of the first-year PhD students to choose my thesis lab. That’s right – I committed myself to a laboratory and to an advisor, and now know in exactly which lab I will be spending 90% of my waking hours for the next 6ish years.