My first week

Well, the first week of the CERTL Program is drawing to a close. Given that it was the first week, a lot of my time was spent going over the basics under close supervision (not that I'm complaining, I don't really trust myself with most of this equipment)

But, that's not to say that I didn't accomplish anything. Dr. Kridel has spent lots of time right there with me, making sure that I can handle anything, and making sure that I understand what's going on, not just how to do it. Joy (who was gone until thursday) and Frances are both great at explaining things when I'm lost or confused, which happens to be a lot of the time.

With their help, I've learned how to do Protein Assays, in which we serially dilute proteins, then essentially dye them, and measure the color with a computer program and machine to determine their concentration. I've done a pair of Western Blots, which involve mixing and puring gels, adding protein samples, and then seperating the proteins by molecular weight inside of the gels. Gel Electrophoresis, another step in the Western Blotting process, involves the transfer of the protein samples from this gel to a sensitive membrane. I've done a lot of membrane work, involving washing the membranes, adding antibodies (primary and secondary), more washing, mixing solutions, adding chemilluminecene, blotting, and exposing and developing film.

My only complaint is that it's a lot of hurry-up and waiting. However, cleaning, reading papers and books to get background information on our work, and filling in my lab book keep me busy.

All in all, I'm really looking forward to the next few weeks. I really feel that I lucked out, both by getting into the program, and getting assigned to the Kridel lab.