Well, this is my first post. I never imagined that I would ever write a blog, but this was inevitable (The program told us we would all be writing blogs, and here I am), so I will try to do a good job. All this week I have been working in Dr. Ryohei Yasuda’s lab in the neurobiology department, working under a post-doc named Hideji. My research this summer will involve imaging two proteins called Rac1 and RhoA in living cells. Doing this requires one to be able to exploit and understand a phenomenon called fluorescence resonance energy transfer, or FRET. When I was first told this is what I would be doing, I was completely shocked as I had never even heard of this “FRET”, and it was supposed to be one of the principle concepts behind my project. As I read more about the topic, I became very interested and I am glad that this is what I will be doing.
Unfortunately, there was no FRET this week. Most of my time thus far has been spent becoming proficient in elementary lab techniques. so far, the things I have learned are how to split cell cultures, make electrophoresis gel by hand, run an electrophoresis machine, and carry out western blotting, to name a few. Hideji has been great showing me how to do all of these things, and I’m sure he’s had to take a good amount of time away from his own research to help me. Anyway, its been a pretty good first week and I look forward to learning more and getting involved in the actual project.