Since I have been shadowing a gastroenterologist this week, I wanted to title this blog post “Poop and Pancakes,” but after watching him perform multiple endoscopies and colonoscopies at The Endoscopy Center of Pensacola yesterday, I decided to go with Procedures instead. Of all the doctors I have shadowed, this one definitely speaks most highly […]

The post Procedures and Pancakes appeared first on Upperclass Monroe Scholars Summer Research Projects.

The mutant thyroid hormone receptor I have been studying, rc6, has a phenotype similar to that of a well characterized oncogenic protein: vErb-A. vErb-A is a highly mutated form of thyroid hormone receptor alpha that is linked to cancer formation. rc6 and vErb-A are both mutated forms of thyroid hormone receptor alpha. The mechanism by…
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The post Colocalization Experiment: GFP-vErbA and mCherry-rc6-TRα1 appeared first on W&M Honors Fellows.

Today was my first full day in the site of my fieldwork:  the Coushatta Tribal Reservation near Kinder, Louisiana. I spent the two weeks leading up to my arrival reviewing academic literature on active-stative languages and collecting a list of verbs that I’d like to elicit to determine the precise semantic boundaries that determine Koasati’s verbal […]

The post Preliminary Research and Elicitation Preparations appeared first on Upperclass Monroe Scholars Summer Research Projects.

  I came back from the break a few days before the summer research started, so I spent some time organizing myself and figuring out the logistics for my synthesis. After discussing some experimental protocols with my adviser, I found out the reason for the unsuccessful reactions during the last semesters, and worked out a…
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The post Experiments started appeared first on W&M Honors Fellows.

I have been working on my honors thesis for about a week and I have made progress not only in reading, but also in collecting the books that I have set out to read throughout this summer. Luckily, I had met with my adviser before school ended and decided what books I should focus on…
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The post First Week of Research Complete appeared first on W&M Honors Fellows.

Currently, my task is to perform fragmentation on tetrapeptides of lysine and lysine homologs. Right now, I am currently investigating the b2+ ion structure and exchange of XAAA tetrapeptides (X being lysine or lysine homologs and A being alanine). I am currently restocking and diluting necessary solutions and cleaning out inventory. In addition, I am…
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The post May Update appeared first on W&M Honors Fellows.

I came into lab on May 30th, ready to start my Honors Project.  There are some issues with the nanspray tip for the mass spectrometer, so I am focusing more on the “wet chemistry” portion of my project, and getting the E. Coli protein ready for the HPLC-MS. For the protein preparation, the cells will…
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The post May Blog Post appeared first on W&M Honors Fellows.

Proteomics is an important field of study, because the analysis of protein interactions and protein structure is critical to understanding protein function.  Modifications in the protein, especially post-translational modifications, are key to understanding function and roles of the proteins, which is why there is a need in biochemistry to sequence proteins.  In this research experiment,…
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The post Introduction to my Honors Project appeared first on W&M Honors Fellows.

Hello all! After a long 10-hour drive from Rhode Island, I am now back in Williamsburg for the summer. Over the brief break, my first survey was sent out on Qualtrics to a national sample of male and female 18-25 year olds. The main goal of this initial survey was to determine if there is…
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The post May Updates: Part 1 is Almost Done! appeared first on W&M Honors Fellows.

Hello! I’ve just worked my first day for the summer here at William and Mary, and I’m excited to be getting back to work.  Today, we went over safety procedures and laid out expectations for summer research.  Additionally, more progress has been made on the ionization source of the LTQ mass spectrometer; I should be…
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The post Back to it! appeared first on W&M Honors Fellows.