Andrew: My life as an intern-week three

June 18, 2007

Can you believe it? We are in the fourth week of the internship....that means in
Today is still in progress but my day in the lab is somewhat a little more lax. I started the day by setting up my lab station in preparation to split the cells that I have been feeding. So splitting essentially means transferring to a different plate. This process is somewhat difficult to me because I am still a little confused about some of these steps. That is why I took notes when I was observing my mentors doing this assay. So Kylee has informed me that Monday is usually her planning day so there isn't much to do. So I have been reading a book in order to keep me busy. Then, she tells me that I will be attending a Ph.D. seminar this afternoon and I can't wait to have this experience.

After the seminar, I realized that it was pretty interesting, but I only managed to get a few concepts out of sumoylation of proteins. Linda Manza was the presenter and she did a good job and I definitely think she deserves to get her Ph.D.

After that seminar, I was doing a BCA Assay which lets me find out what the concentration of protein is. It was not that difficult, but it is so tedious. I think I am starting to get the hang of this lab situation. So pretty much after the BCA assay, I am practically done for the day. Now a little R & R! Can't wait until tomorrow!!! (I get to leave early.) =)

Highlight of the day: I saw our joyful college student/restaurant worker/joyful stalker (jk), LBD, and Mon-Ning's lover...haha

Later

~A. Vo
(to be continued...)


June 19, 2007


So today, I didn't do very much. Well I did but it was very time consuming. I performed a western blot and a western blot is used to determine proteins. I was not very fond of it, but when I went to go to cell culture and split my UROtsa cells, joyful things happened! That made my life more joyful. So today, I pretty much did not do much. The western blot is really the only thing that I did. The steps, as I mentioned, are very time consuming. It makes my life more intense when the steps take 2-4 hours. So, today was a little more enjoyable.

After lunch, there was not much that needed to be done so I practically took the rest of the day off. I worked on my abstract and then I focused my attention onto other scholarship opportunities on FastWeb. After all that, I went home. GOOD TIMES! (PS- This blog may be the most non-entertaining one yet!)


~A. Vo
(to be continued...)


June 20, 2007

Today was practically the most JOYFUL day of my intern life! It was so amazing, but that story I will share in the lunch section. Haha, so my day begins as I am to complete the western blot. I wait until 1:30 pm so the incubation process will be complete. After lunch, I developed a film and it was practically the best thing that ever happened. The film came out how it was supposed to turn out. So my day turns out more like Tuesday. After the film, there was not much to do so I, again, focused my attention on my abstract for the poster presentation. So now the academic part is over with.

LUNCH! The most joyful time of the day. I am so happy that I accomplished MISSION FRIEND PROBATION and MISSION JOYFULLY STALK. BTW (AKA by the way) joyfully stalking is just getting someone's attention. It has absolutely nothing to do with stalking. That would be creepy. So, LBD (Mon-Ning's secret lover) showed up at lunch and I had a spaz attack and I started laughing uncontrollably. LBD wanted to sit at another table, but he was generous enough to sit RIGHT IN FRONT of us so he can look at Mon-Ning. It was the most entertaining thing that happened. I was really about to die of laughter/cough up a lung/rolling on the floor laughing.

Mon-Ning came to my lab and was there for a little while. Then after I fed my cells (serum-free and serum-enriched) and developed the film for the western blot, she and I were in Tiffany and Shiana's lab for a little chat. So really, that is how my day went. The most JOYFUL DAY!

~A.Vo
(to be continued...)

June 21, 2007

Thursday, my mentor Sarah returned from her trip and it was fun. She and I performed a BCA assay. For all those who don't know what this is, a BCA is Bicinchoninic acid and it is used to determine the concentration of protein. We used a reader to then determine the concentration of protein in the 96-well plates. So we did that until noon and I finished up the results on excel after lunch. The morning went by quick and it was most enjoyable.

AT LUNCH!! JK everyone...TODAY IS THE MOST JOYFUL DAY OF MY LIFE! But I decided to terminate MISSION JOYFULLY STALK because it was really awkward. So the new mission is MISSION GET-MON-NING-and LBD TOGETHER. MISSION FRIEND PROBATION is in progress. So we saw our joyful stalker LBD at lunch, and he sat else-where to begin with but he saw us...and sat in front of us again. He smiled at the thought of us talking about him, which he apparently knew. I know he loves Mon-Ning and she loves him because they stare into each other's eyes...haha LAWLZ. But he was staring at Tiffany and I too, considering the fact that I could not stop laughing which triggered tiffany's laughter. I am so excited for the new mission. Then, he was on the same Cat Tran we were on...how weird. It is like he is following us. MISSION JOYFULLY STALK ACCOMPLISHED. He pays attention to Mon-Ning now and that was the plan to begin with. (FYI- joyfully stalking is getting someone's attention, not stalking them...that would be too weird.)