brought me outta hibernation...

I got super excited yesterday when I heard about this
slug! It's jaw dropping, eye opening, nerdylicous to the max!!

Hope everyone is well and their science is blossoming!

Cold Spring Harbor...

...is anyone going to the 'Microbial Pathogenesis and Host Response' Cold Spring Harbor conference from Sept 8th-12th?? My excitedly nerdy self will be there!!

Odd Phase.

I am going through a weird scientific phase. My fuse is short, my days are long, and I have an unnecessary itch to move onto my next step. I love my project and my job...I have no idea why I want to move on so badly. It must be some part of entering your 5th year that makes you realize how long you have been in school, and that graduation still seems so far away. I don't know if it's a fear of inadequacy if your degree takes too long...or if its just that its time for you to move on, you've learned a lot and feel ready for your PhD?? I feel like I am mostly waiting on the bench work to pick up...tho that is probably a naive statement (I know that I have so much more to learn...)

Sigh. It will happen someday....hopefully late next year........

Introducing Rhea May...

The ceremony...

Time TO PArTaY!!

...so as I mentioned before with working a ton and planning a wedding I was left with ZErO free time to....ummm....blog. But with that said...I'm now back to enjoy extraneous science with my fellow bloggers!!

Oooo the guilt....

....as I put on my coat and think of all the things I still need to do.

I'm pretty good about always doing my bench-work.  Instead, the guilt comes from my consistent neglect of reading articles.  There is so much to know and learn...and I have a hard time modivating myself to get it all crammed in my small head (I have a really small head btw...I went looking for a helmet for skiing and found myself in the juniors section...and whats worse....I bought a juniors small.  yikes.)  I have a committee meeting coming up...I better get my butt in gear!!

But for now....I think I'll just go home....shame on me!!

800 colonies to pick today...

...800 colonies to pick.  I pick one up, and place it down....799 colonies to pick today!

E-gads am I a transposon screening fool or what?!?!

So I have good reasons for my pause in blogging...between wedding planning, working A TON (please see above), and skiing every weekend I just seem to loose all my time (hahahaha, Oooo poor me...right?)

Honestly, I think my main reason for the lack of blog posts is due to my current successes in the lab.  It certainly makes me think about my future...when will I graduate, where will I go, what will I do for the rest of my life.  And I'll tell you what...I'm a bit scared about the whole ordeal...and I'm not even that close to being done.  Since I started graduate school, people have asked me what I want to do with my degree and my obvious answer was "research."  But now I realize I have no clue about what kind.  I thought I wanted to go into industry and so my plan was to do one academic post-doc and then do some sort of industry internship.  Unfortunately, I am growing up fast and I might want to move right on into the field I plan on working in...in other words...why do two post-docs?

So what do I want to do with my life???  I figure the first step I can take is to find the kinds jobs that are available in the cities I would like to settle down in...is that a good step, or a bad step?  I am 100% afraid of pigeon holing myself into one single profession and then not being able to find a job...but then I wonder, is that even a real possibility??  

Oooo my brain hurts.  Thinking of my future is so overwhelming...it's kind of like how this kid views kicking a ball.

...hahahahaha.  Bummer deal.

I LOVE my lab.

My lab is full of people that love to hear how each others experiments are going...we love to laugh and joke...love to teach and help each other grow.  We give good hugs, smiles, and tissues/kimwipes when the going gets tough.  We call each other when there is free food in the break-room or when a baby is born.  We keep up with people that graduated/moved on years ago and make sure that everyone says hi.  In all, we are a big loving family of 8 not including our lab mom and PI dad (yup, they are even married...)    So why do we work together so well...what makes us different from the other labs on our floor???

First off, our PI views our non-lab-life as important.  He lets us do what we need to do and treats us as the adults that we are, thus, he allows us to be relaxed and focused when we are at work.  He also promotes playfulness...he'll come in with a bat and start playing ball in lab...or...he'll find our dialysis bags and start swinging them around attempting to make the lab mom mad...lololol.  And what's nice is that this environment propagates itself because those that are interested in joining the lab are usually people that want a fun place to work...natural selection at it's finest.

But that's not all.  Our boss is in high demand...he works on lots of committees and he gives many talks/reviews/etc a year...therefore, he is not usually available for project discussions.  Thats where the lab mates step in.  We go to each other when we need a little help here and again, making us incredibly strong as a group.  None of us are pinned against each other for papers and projects.  Instead, we are all proud of each other and our progress.

I don't know how I would survive graduate school, at least with high spirits, if I did not have my lab.  I suppose the point of this post is that I am beginning to realize how important lab environments are to me...more than I thought when I picked mine.  

My top 10 favorite bacteria.

Oooo...I just want to hug them and squeeze them and never let them go!! Thomas Joseph liked one of my comments recently and expanded it to a meme of sorts...i'll extend this invitation out to all of you too....

What are your top 10 favorite bacteria???  We're all nerds and we all have secret crushes on various bacteria spp's for various reasons...so don't be shy.

10. Clostridium botulinum - I am impressed with this bacteria because it has convinced us to shoot its horrible toxin right into our face.  It doesn't even need to be cleaver enough to evade the canning industry's strict sterilizing protocols anymore.  *bows down*...the stupidity of humans are no match... 

9. Leuconostoc oenos (now known as Oenococcus oeni) - It converts malic acid to lactic acid and thus reduces the acidity of wine!!  yum, yum, thanks dood!!

8. Bacillus anthracis - I love spore formers...ingenious.  And its crazy how these guys can cause such a none de-script disease (yay flu-like symptoms) at first and then can kill you in a variety of ways depending on their mood.

7. Staphylococcus aureus - I hate that this guy is developing so many resistances.  However, I respect them because they are putting the fire under investors asses to friggin fund the development of new antibacterials.

6. Listeria monocytogenes - It's pretty neat how these boogers move from cell to cell.  They also have a lot to teach us about bacterial signaling...yay for ppGpp and cyclic-di-GMP!!

5. Clostridium tetani - Whoa, have you seen the results from infection with this guy...that looks intense.  

4. Myxococcus xanthus - In your face creationists...these prokaryotes work together to form a multicellular fruiting body.  These guys are crazy cool and will forever make their way into my thoughts and best wishes.

3. Pseudomonas aeruginosa - These guys are so cute and innocuous (and my they smell lovely)...then...bam they have taken over your body just when you thought it couldn't get any worse.  They will also (hopefully) grant me my Ph.D by letting me genetically manipulate them and expose them to weird chemicals.  *hugs the plates on my bench*

2. Mycobacterium tuberculosis - R-e-s-p-e-c-t....sing it with me.....These guys infect most of the world, kill tons of people a year, AND has the general public thinking its an old disease (like small pox) and doesn't exist anymore.  HA.  They also know how to go dormant in our bodies which is pretty cool...but my favorite part is that they cover themselves in thick mycolic acids (lipids with 80-100 carbons...whoa, thats a thick friggin goo.)

1. Helicobacter pylori - This guy is absolutely my favorite pet.  He is uber cute with his multiple flagella's and helix shape.  It completely baffles me that he has found the highly acidic stomach comfortable and a place to hang his hat.  I can't wait to see what research will reveal about this bugger.

x.x Bleach x.x

I always wondered how bleach kills my poor used up bacteria as I prepare them for sink disposal...and in order to avoid extra google searches I figured I would stumble upon the answer one of these darn days.  Thanks to Jonathan Eisen that day finally came. 

Apparently, it wasn't entirely known before Winter et al. accidentally found an answer and published their findings in the recent Cell issue.  Errr...wait a tick...you MEAN we didn't even know how bleach worked?!?!?  We have been using bleach since the late 19th century when Louis Pasteur discovered its killing potential...and we hadn't a clue of its mechanism, who da thunk?!?

Well, we do know that bleach is a strong oxidizer.  That could be a clue...but how in the heck do you study the mechanism of such a harsh killer, even with a hypothesis??  Even if you did some sort of shot in the dark experiment...lets say a microarray comparing samples +/- a small amount of bleach...my guess is you would prolly see an up-regulation of general stress response genes and nothing specific enough...tho I donno.  (I didn't find any research out there on bleach killing in my quick search...let me know if you know/find out more)  At least with antibiotic treatments, bacteria will mutate in order to survive...and you can study those mutations in order to get an idea about its mode of action.  

Anyway, these guys (Winter et al...see above) at the University of Michigan study the redox-regulated chaperone, heat shock protein 33, Hsp33.  They found that small amounts of hypochlorous acid (the active ingredient in bleach) causes the oxidative C-terminus of this protein to unfold and activate.  This activated Hsp33 acts as a chaperone holdase, "which protects essential Escherichia coli proteins against HOCl-induced aggregation and increases bacterial HOCl resistance" as written in their abstract.  They suggest that bleach acts a lot like high temperatures in that it causes an irreversible unfolding and aggregation of proteins thus leaving dead cells in its wake.

Oooooo...Ahhhhhh!

The 5 Things Meme...

MicroXX tagged me for 'The 5 Things Meme'...Mmmmmk.

5 things I was doing 10 years ago:

1. Dressing in Junco's, HUGE tee-shirts, and a green canvas jacket.

2. Getting used to High School...feeling like an unsure girl with a gap in her teeth.

3. Listening to Smashing Pumpkins and Bob Marley.

4. Taking the city bus and metrolink everywhere around St. Louis.

5. Learning Muay Thai...if only my mother could have known it would become a life long practice instead of just a summer activity.

5 things on my to do list today:

1. Take the dog to the dog park and laugh at her goofyness.

2. Get my registry together for Bed Bath and Beyond.

3. Turn on 'Pandora.com' and rock out...

4. ...while cleaning the WHOLE house...dusting, mopping, and folding all the laundry...yeah the good stuff

5. Give a big hug and smooch to my future husband as he come in from outta town.

5 snacks I love:

1. String Cheese.

2. Granola Bars.

3. Salt and Vinegar chips.

4. Beer.

5. Brownies.

5 things I would do if I were a Millionare:

1. Pay off Johnny's student loans, my car, and my loans.

2. Pay off my parents loans...and pay back the retirement money they lost in the market crash.

3. Buy a beautiful chunk of property in Steamboat, CO for Johnny and I's retirement.

4. Travel.

5. Invest the rest.

5...err...3 places I have lived:

1. Granite City, IL.  

2. Saint Louis, MO.

3. Denver, CO. 

5 Jobs I have had:

1. Babysitter.

2. PetsMart cashier.

3. Lab tech.

4. Construction Worker.

5. Graduate Student.

Whelp, now that I've been severely dated as a wee one...

5 people I'll tag:

1. Pooflinger.

2. Carlo.

3. Epicanis.

4. Hermitage.

5. Mad Hatter.