My day at the lab involves a couple of connected protocols. Everyday before I leave the lab, I prepare solutions and organize equipments that I will use the next day. Then, I go through some protocols with my mentor and ask questions so that I’m all set to proceed once I get at the lab the following day.I have been doing different connected things in the past 4 weeks and my typical week has been pretty interesting. I have been doing gene deletions to make mutants for 3 of my 26 cyptococcus neoformans strains, which were found to be highly expressed in the human infection.The other 23 genes were knocked out and have mutants in the bioinformatics library, but there were 3 left that didn’t have mutants and that’s what I was working on in the past 4 weeks. Gene deletions involves several long stages and my typical week involved designing primers, setting up PCR reactions, gel analysis & extraction( in order to elute my DNA), infusion cloning and lastly colony PCR to culture my tranformants/ mutants.
Starting tomorrow , I will culture all the 26 strains and screen them for CSF survival assay.
Besides that, my typical day at the lab involves interacting with my lab team. We have lunch together and sometimes play volleyball. It’s a very supportive team I’m part of and I have been learning a lot from them as they share with me their research projects and guide me through my own project. Also, I spent 2 days shadowing my PI for Infectious Disease transplants at Duke Hospital and I saw a patient suffering from meningitis.
Lastly, before I leave the lab , I write my lab report and a call it a beautiful day.
