Life With Asia

Syposium

2005-07-21T20:56:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is my last day with the program...I'm kinda sad to see it go, but then again, I had lots of fun and learned a lot. The symposium was today and I did, okay I guess. Briana and I presented together (first, I might add), but I actually spoke first. My parents said that I didn't say 'um' at all, but that I seemed nervous. In reality, I was excited, nervous, anxious, and tired all at the same time. I was really stoked to use the laser pointer. My grandmother and grandfather both came, along with my godmother, Elaine (my mom, dad, and brother were there of course). I learned a lot tonight from the presentations. We also got our certificates and notebooks (I, again, was first). I cannot believe the program is really over...

Mock

2005-07-20T15:57:00.000-05:00

Today was the mock presentation and it went okay. Except for the fact that we had to format our disc...then lost the presentation. Luckily, Briana had the e-mail of an earlier form of the presentation, so we made the necessary changes. The presentation is about 9 minutes long...not bad, huh?

Finished!

2005-07-19T14:55:00.000-05:00

I'm so happy! Briana and I finished all the revisions that our mentors had for the powerpoint. Then we got to leave early. I can't believe that the presentation is in 2 days.

Last Monday

2005-07-18T15:21:00.000-05:00

I cannot believe that today is the last Monday of the program. Six weeks went by so fast. I am very happy. Briana and I finished our powerpoint and one of the obligations I had been stressing about didn't exist: I thought we had to have a separate website and I had spent a lot of time on that. I didn't realize that this blogger was the website. Dumb, I know.

Last Real Day

2005-07-15T19:54:00.000-05:00

Today was actually the last real day of the program. Next week is devoted to preparing for the symposium. Today, we had our last computer workshop and GCRC lecture series. We also got our safety goggles as well (go figure...).

Under Stress and LC/MS

2005-07-14T12:26:00.000-05:00

Gosh! I have sooo much to do. I have to finish my powerpoint and my website (still not sure how that whole website thing is going to work out, but oh well). Today with Dr. Clarke we're doing LC/MS and microsomal incubations. The HPLC results for Cheese and I came out great, Rick and AliBabwah weren't as lucky. We have to re-do the experiment, just for their sake, but it doesn't matter because now I know I can actually do a good experiment.

As we go on...we remember...

2005-07-13T15:05:00.000-05:00

I cannot believe that today is our last day with Dr. Harp. I might actually cry, seriously. We, uh, celebrated by doing CHEMICAL BINDING in Dr. Childers' lab, the hottest lab on campus. When we got back, we did some data interpretation with Excel and we also discussed information in the Dogwood Conference Room.

Protein and Pizza

2005-07-12T15:56:00.000-05:00

Today I had pizza, again. This eating in the 'blue room' (lol) is getting old, but I've learned to deal with it (by adding a salad). After Dr. Clarke explained once more, we got started! Cheese and I actually finished our timed experiments, unlike other people.

Almost over...

2005-07-11T14:38:00.000-05:00

Today I worked with Dr. Clarke. We did calculations in Excel to know what we would be doing: timed microsomal incubations. We didn't actually get around to starting, but we will be ready for tommorrow. We also had a meeting with Dr. Lambros. I was very confused, but whatever. I can't believe the program's almost over.

Problems with Technology

2005-07-08T10:51:00.000-05:00

This morning when I came into the computer lab, I tried to put my floppy into the drive. All well in theory, except for the fact that my CPU didn't have a disc drive. My disc fell through the drive and was stuck in there for about 10 minutes. I got it out eventually, but it was still weird.

Preparing for the Future

2005-07-08T10:13:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, after lunch, Cheese and I made buffer stock and solutions for later use. What were these solutions to be used for? Preserving the organs of the rat that we would be killing. I picked up the rat, who we dubbed Frankie, by the tail and then put him in the ether chamber. Then I picked him up by the nape of his neck and placed his head in the guillotine. Dr. Harp actually killed Frankie, but I put the body in the red bag. I was suprised that no one else wanted to do anything with Frankie, especially by Rick. After Dr. Harp demonstrated how to slice the brain, I did some slicing. It wasn't as gross as I thought it would be, and actually it will be a lesson that I will be happy I learned because I want to be a surgeon.

Check It Once, Check It Twice

2005-07-07T11:43:00.000-05:00

Today we'll be checking and double checking our compounds to be sure that they're pure. This morning when I came in, I noticed that our compound had solidified on the outside of the vial, so we had to scrape what we could back into the vial (not a fun process). After we rotovaped our solutions, we spent some time in the computer lab working on our various projects. Dr. Harp informed us that we will be interpreting some chemical binding notes that she has. It sounds hard, but I'm sure it won't be that bad.

Hope Springs Eternal

2005-07-06T18:27:00.000-05:00

Today we took NMRs at Wake Forest University with Dr. Harp. Cheese and I had two samples, in which the solvent was chloroform. Rick and AliBabwah only had one sample. Apparently, we all had additional ether and other substances in the samples. Now we have to run them again. After we finished the NMR, Dr. Harp allowed us to take lunch. When we got back, we were given a lesson/lecture about NMR. I hope that the next time we do this NMR, my compound is 100% pure (I said hope didn't I?).

Utter Disbelief

2005-07-05T20:10:00.000-05:00

The program is almost over, I am in total disbelief. Today with Dr. Harp, Cheese and I are continuing to work on our Convergent Synthesis. We finished our alkylation and purified it [before Rick and Alejandro (there's a first time for everything, really)]. We prepared our samples for the NMR we'll be doing tomorrow at Wake at 2:00. I washed so many dishes and made so many solutions today...but I cannot wait until tomorrow.

Drugs and Assays

2005-06-30T19:02:00.000-05:00

Today went by fast. We were working with Dr. Clarke starting another assay. This one will be different though because we're using drugs in the assay. My drug is Dextromethoropan. I had to measure out everyone else's drug, including Cheese's who had a toxic drug. Then we went to the computer lab and made an Excel file that organized all of our information. This experiment is basically an LC/MS with microsomal incubation.

Knowledge is Power

2005-06-29T23:12:00.000-05:00

Today was my last day of teaching the kids. It was pretty fun because I understood more about them and was better able to help them. We extracted the caffiene from tea in a fairly easy procedure. Tommorrow I'll be working with Dr. Clarke once again. Yay!

Teacher Appreciation

2005-06-28T14:45:00.000-05:00

Today was so surreal! I helped Dr. Harp teach 35 eighth graders. It was so hectic because they insisted on asking questions every 2 seconds, so after a few minutes I was a little flustered, but I held it in. We were teaching them how to make aspirin and how to purify it using TLC, but some of them did not listen. It actually wasn't too horrible because after lunch I got the hang of being a teacher. But, my feet hurt. Tomorrow we will be teaching them how to extract caffeine from tea. I'm so excited!

Data Blues

2005-06-27T14:33:00.000-05:00

Today was pretty cool considering the fact that my data was off! I was so upset. We were doing Bradford Protein Assays and my percent was only 96% which is basically unacceptable. And Rick's data was practically perfect (a 99.3%). I was discouraged at first, but it only made me want to try harder to get 100%.

Reflection of a Busy Week

2005-06-24T08:00:00.000-05:00

This week we did a lot of stuff. I worked over at PTCRC with Dr. Harp and tried to synthesize a drug with a similar chemical structure to cocaine. It was fun work because everyone actually talked this week. Next week we're back at WSSU, so I'm looking forward to that.

Goofy Day and Trials

2005-06-23T19:30:00.000-05:00

Today kinda rocked, but sorta didn't. First off, I burned my finger. Don't flip out, it wasn't serious. I was making capillaries with a Bunsen burner and I accidentally touched one before it cooled (Briana did the same thing on Monday). Rick tripped over his lab coat and hit the floor, I thought he was hurt at first, but then realized that he wasn't, so we all laughed. The solution Cheese and I made did not want to cooperate, she thinks it's because it doesn't like us. We did TLCs to check on our solution, but it wasn't ready so we went on to do a trial run of the asprin lab we'll be helping Dr. Harp with.

Slow SN2

2005-06-22T18:29:00.000-05:00

Today I researched Substitution Nucleophilic Reaction, Type 2 online. Then I began one with Cheese. I also did the math for the theoretical outcome of the SN2. It was a slow day because the reaction had to stir for 3 hours. Had a really great lunch at Ardmore.

Chemistry 101

2005-06-21T21:35:00.000-05:00

I'm really enjoying CERTL. Today with Dr. Harp, we purified our compounds from yesterday with a rotory evaporator (big fun!). I found the percent and theoretical yields. I also found out that we'd be doing Convergent Synthesis with our drug. I even got all of my EH&S orientations and tests done as well.

Apprentice of the PTCRC

2005-06-20T18:39:00.000-05:00

This week I am at PTCRC with Dr. Harp. She's soo funny and cool. Today we talked about cocaine in relation to DPP and also did a Reduction of Benzophenone by Sodium Borohydride. I learned how to convert grams to mols and density to mLs. I also learned and preformed TLCs with Cheese, who will be my 'lab buddy' for the week.

It's going to be a great week!!

Happy Friday!

2005-06-17T19:44:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday CERTL students! I survived my first week of real work and am glad that I'm getting my feet wet in research. Today was the first of my computer sessions and I looked up information for my website and powerpoint symposium presentation. I really liked this week because I am so interested in the work and being on campus. I also liked getting to know my 3 group members.
Speaking of group members, for future references, their nicknames are: Briana is Cheese, Richard is Rick, and Alejandro is AliBabwah.
THIS WEEK ROCKED!

B.P.A.

2005-06-16T17:20:00.000-05:00

Today I did a Bradford Protein Assay (BPA) using the Tecan GENios microplate reader. We also discussed the steps for doing a BPA. I also learned about In Vitro Microsomal Incubation, and did the math for the BPA we would be doing.