This week I got a chance to watch everyone’s chalk talks covering a wide range of research topics. One talk that stood out to me was Jarvis’s presentation on elastin like polypeptides (ELPs) and designing sensitive sensors. ELPs are intriguing proteins that involve synthesizing amino acid sequences to have specific folding properties. With the sensor design, I found it very interesting how changing just one component of the complex, an aromatic group, could bring about different effects in pH or temperature. I was also interested in the method of designing the certain amino acid sequences that had to be synthesized with plasmids and E. coli. Jarvis works closely on the sequence of amino acids Val-Pro-Gly-Xaa-Gly, where Xaa stands for a changeable amino acid. Surprisingly, manufacturers don’t like to make many of the amino acid sequences used in Jarvis’s lab because of their repetitiveness, so the lab has to use alternative methods.
Jarvis’s project reminded me of a Rubik’s cube: something that may appear simple from the outside with only a handful of key components, but in reality, having things in the right order or having or finding a specific piece in the correct spot is a challenging puzzle.
I also found Jarvis’s talk to be fascinating because of the biomedical engineering aspect of his work. Not being an engineer, I thought it was cool how molecular biology concepts like plasmid cloning, which I also do in my lab, and amino acid chains could be used to create novel devices. I look forward to seeing Jarvis’s final poster and results!
Great job 🙂