(Yes, this has been gratuitously stolen from MattBrubeck :-> )
I am a FunBallPeople, as well as the past FoodRep for EastDorm. Oh, and I was Frosh Class Pres way back when... Gotta love those Pyronecrophila campaigns :->
Currently Student Representative to the Board of Trustees Physical Plant and Planning Committee. Um.... yeah :->
Check out http://www3.hmc.edu/~ebrown/FunballSuite.html for a slightly out-of-date but rather silly funball suite page curtosy of EricBrown.
Biol 126 3.0 Biology of Prokaryotes Biol 173 4.0 Bioinfomatics w/ Lab (PO) Biol 191 0.0 Colloquim Biol 193 3.0 Sr thesis Research Engr 155 4.0 Micro-P's (heh heh) Hist 134 3.0 US, Palistine and Isreal (PO)
My old class schedule from Spring '01.
Anth 52 3.0 Human Sexuality W 1:15-4 B Biol 101 3.0 Struct & Function TTh 9:40 B+ Biol 160 3.0 Immunology MWF 10 B Biol 192 0.0 Colloquium W 4:15 P CS 60-2 3.0 Prins of Comp Science TTh 2:45 A- Lit 110 3.0 Shakespeare F 1:15-4 A PE 1-10 0.0 First Aid/CPR/Em? Res Tu 7-10p PTotal Units: 15 (Look ma! No labs! That's not supposed to happen :-> ) 3.40 Semester GPA. 2.82 Cummulative GPA. Deans List again... Sheesh.
Here's a "brief" synopsis of what I've been doing:
Okay, here's what I do on a micro level (As in, what I am ACTUALLY doing): Decide which of my 70 or so DNA samples I want to run with which primers (About 16 at one time). Set up PCR reactions. Run PCR reaction - Takes 2.5 hours. Mix appropiate restriction digest with PCR products. Incubate Digest - Takes ~1 hour. Meanwhile, make appropiate concentration separide gel (between 1-2 %). Run digest on gel - Takes ~1.25 hours. Photograph gel. Squint at bands. Determine for each lane if the DNA is mutant, wild-type or heterozygoes. Repeat for different DNA or different primers.
Right. If you followed that, congrats :->
Basically, I'm doing Molecular genetics. Prof. Williams (my advisor), has this particular plant that contains a single point mutation that effects the way the root developes. It's charectaristic of an auxin muatation if that means anything to you. So, what I am doing is trying to locate the posistion of the mutation. They've already identified it to a certain place on the 3rd chromosome (the plant has 5), I'm just trying to be as specific as possible.
The way it works is this. Because all of the DNA we are looking at displays the mutant phenotype, we know that at the point of mutation, every individual will have mutant DNA. The further you get from the point of the mutation, the more heterozygotes or straight up wild-type DNA will be present in the mutant individuals. This has to do with crossover during meiosis. Just accept it, basically :-> If the region is not linked to the mutation at all (say, a region on a different chromosome), it should be 50:50 mutant:wild-type (Yes, this is really just playing with probability).
So, this particualar plant is a model organism that they (the genreal plant biology community) have sequenced entirely and set up various PCR primer regions that corrospond with particular restriction digests. This means that when I run an individuals DNA with a particular PCR primer, the result will be that it amplifies a very specific region of the DNA to the exclusion of all others (Say, a 150kB? region 78.8 cM up chromosome 3. Just accept that thats very specific :->). The primer has been designed such that when I link it with a particular endonuclease (enzyme that cuts DNA at specific bits), it will cut the mutant and wildtype differently (say, not cut the mutant, but cut the wildtype twice). This means, when I run the DNA on the gel it will actually appear different becasue the gel seperates them based on thier size. This allows me to easily (well, supposedly easily, some of the pieces are VERY close to each other :-> ) decide if the DNA is wild-type, mutant, or heterozygoes combination of each at this particular region.
Then, we take that and after we do each primer for all 80 or so individuals, we run the numbers through some probabilistic equations and get an estimate for how far away the mutation is from the region that the primer was in.
The whole point of this is that once we know the exact posistion, we can match the mutation up to a particular gene and know "Hey! This gene must be responsible for maintaining appropiate root growth, because when we interfere with its expression, root growth gets all haywire!" And then they can go to thier big plant DNA sequence map thing and label the function of this particualar gene.
And I get listed in the paper.
Yea :->
And if you still followed that, much congrats :->
( from NeonExodusEvangelion at http://www.eyrie.net/ )
Nope, I couldn't resist. Between the false-Evangelion and Trainspotting. So, why fight it?
Oh, good. I'm not the only one who thinks this is incredibly cool... -AndrewSchoonmaker
Ok, when I read the text and look at the picture out of the corner of my eye (well, more like the bottom, but whatever) it looks like her eyes and mouth move. This is probably just me being whacked out, but it could be some optical illusion or physiological effect that happens to other people too...
yeah, i see it too. crazy, eh...
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