Cait, Entry #1, Playing with Fish

I started my lab as most of you were taking exams on Tuesday, May 31^st. My graduate student’s name is Ben Tajer, and he just got back from a two week vacation in Russia on the same day I started. This caused for me to get to try some awesome Russian candy, which had the texture of jelly mixed with Jell-O. His arrival on the same day as me also caused for him to be at a nice starting point, and allowed me to jump in at the beginning stages of his project. Ben actually has two projects, one of which is his actual graduate research and the other he is helping a postdoc with. This summer I will be working on both projects, as well as helping Ben and the lab get ready for Woodholme, which is a science convention in August that the lab has to present at.

The cubby space I was allotted in the lab.

The project Ben and I are working on for the postdoc has to deal with two of the receptors involved in Bmp signaling. We are aiming to eliminate one of the receptors using morpholinos that degrade the protein of the receptor, and show that without this receptor the fish dorsalized, resulting in the loss of their tales. The fish dorsalized, because this receptor eliminates the ability for Bmp signaling, and without Bmp signaling, that produces ventral features, the fish only expresses dorsal traits. The receptor we are focused on is Acvr2, and of the four receptors that come to bind the Bmp ligand on the extracellular surface, Acvr2 is the one that inside the cell phosphorylates a molecule that causes transcription of a certain gene. The receptor next to Acvr2 has thought to also have the ability of phosphorylation in the past, but this experiment has shown to prove that theory wrong. Ben’s project that he is working on for his graduate degree, deals with using CRISPR. This is a relatively new technique for cutting out certain places of DNA, using a protein called Cas9 and a guide RNA.

This week had another first for me, which was Ben took me to lunch at a gyro cart stationed on the side of the road. It was the first time I ever had one, and for the three dollars it coast, I am definitely sold. I chose chicken, while Ben was a little more daring and ordered lamb. I have also come to realize that Ben looks exactly like a curly-haired version of Mr. Mixon.

View from where I sit at Ben’s lab bench. Featuring the silhouet