Tanvi Dange, Entry #3, Weeks 3 & 4- Busiest Weeks Yet!

The weeks of July 25-29 and August 1-5 were super busy in the Franz lab because on August 5, 2016, the undergraduates participating in the Summer Fellowship Program (and me!) were presentation posters at the 2016 Summer Symposium and Poster Session. So the week prior to the session, Lizzie and I spent every second in the lab collecting data for my poster. The main data I was collecting that week was from Antifungal Assays and a Checkerboard Assay all on the brand new S. cerevisiae strains I got from Duke's Magwene Lab. The Magwene lab was so generous to give us 5 different Saccharomyces strains since our Baker's yeast from the store was too resistant to the drugs. So the strain I tested that week was S288c, a  laboratory strain. I made three Antifungal Assays against the S288c: one with Fluconazole +/- CuCl2, Fenpropidin +/- CuCl2, and Flu-TSCZ +/- CuCl2. I also made one checkerboard assay with different concentrations of Fluconazole with different concentrations of CuCl2 against the fungus.

Me preparing my plates-- probably serially diluting 100uM of Fluconazole

 I worked up some of the data over the weekend and the rest on Monday morning. The results themselves were interesting, and I was definitely able to it on my poster, so after all the data was worked up, I started making my poster on Monday, August 1, 2016.

Closer look at the Dose Response I worked up for Flu-TSCZ

During the craziness of making the poster during week four of the lab, Dr. Venanzi came for a visit! This was a really special visit because my PI Dr. Franz was also Dr. V's PI in graduate school-- I'm in her old lab! Dr. Franz and Dr. V both had a chance to catch up, and I showed Dr. V where I work in the lab and how my research is going so far. Then, the entire Franz lab all went out for a group lunch.

Franz lab + Dr. V at Tobacco Road Sports Cafe

For the rest of that week, it was long hours in the lab preparing for the poster presentation, which finally came together the night before the session. Finally the day came, and it was time for the undergraduates and I to present our posters in front of members of the Duke Chemistry Department and others who wished to attend the session. I had an excellent time presenting my poster. I felt a lot of pressure being the youngest one there, but because of my experience presenting at EXP's spring Science Night, I quickly adjusted and had a great time sharing my research with those who were interested. :)

My poster and I