Behold the stunning conclusion to my summer research! The RNA has been transcribed! The proteins have been translated! The cells have been counted! The data has been accumulated and formatted! The graphs have been designed! Okay, enough of that. I finished typing up the written portion of my project. It reads like a pseudo-scientific paper, […]

The post Conclusion appeared first on Upperclass Monroe Scholars Summer Research Projects.

For the last two weeks, I have been involved in the data analysis portion of my project. I have dubbed it “The Microsoft Excel Saga” as Excel has been my vitriolic best bud over the course of August. The Microsoft Excel Saga began with some extensive data cleaning, as I whittled away superfluous info until…
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The post The Statistics Saga appeared first on W&M Honors Fellows.

For the last two weeks, I have been involved in the data analysis portion of my project. I have dubbed it “The Microsoft Excel Saga” as Excel has been my vitriolic best bud over the course of August. The Microsoft Excel Saga began with some extensive data cleaning, as I whittled away superfluous info until […]

The post In Which Math Was Done and Graphs Were Made appeared first on Upperclass Monroe Scholars Summer Research Projects.

I’ve spent a hectic July in and out of the tissue culture room. During this time, I switched out my old wild-type rat thyroid hormone receptor with human TR and had to rework the concentrations I was using in my transfection procedure. Nevertheless, it was generally a painless process, whose only impediment was my hatred of long decimals that cannot be divided […]

The post A (Really) Late July Post appeared first on Upperclass Monroe Scholars Summer Research Projects.

I’ve spent a hectic July in and out of the tissue culture room. During this time, I switched out my old wild-type rat thyroid hormone receptor with human TR and had to rework the concentrations I was using in my transfection procedure. Nevertheless, it was generally a painless process, whose only impediment was my hatred of long decimals that cannot be divided…
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The post An Uninspired Title for My July Post appeared first on W&M Honors Fellows.

For the past month, I have been working on expressing my mutant thyroid hormone receptor A382PfsX7 and a wild-type TRa1 within HeLa cells. (What are “HeLa” cells? An immortal human cell line often used in scientific research. These cells were derived from Henrietta Lacks, who died of cancer back in 1951.) This process requires that I […]

The post June Research Update appeared first on Upperclass Monroe Scholars Summer Research Projects.

Research Update My initial month of research has dealt with expressing my mutant thyroid hormone receptor, A382PfsX7, and a wild-type TRa1 within HeLa cells. (For the curious, “HeLa” denotes an immortal human cell line often used in scientific research. These cells were derived from Henrietta Lacks, who died of cancer back in 1951.) This process…
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The post What Has Happened in June? appeared first on W&M Honors Fellows.

I’m back on campus to begin summer research! My return to Williamsburg was heralded by high humidity and rain. But before I get the ball rolling on my project, I’ve decided to post a bit more background info on my research. I’m studying thyroid hormone receptors (TR) which are a type of nuclear receptor. I…
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The post Getting to know Ala382ProfsX7 appeared first on W&M Honors Fellows.

Thyroid hormone (TH) is received by thyroid hormone receptors (TRs), resulting in ligand-dependent activation or inhibition of TH-target genes. I will be working with a mutant form of thyroid hormone receptor alpha 1. This mutant (dubbed Ala382ProfsX7) has been implicated in Resistance to Thyroid Hormone Syndrome (RTH). Patients with RTH experience a variety of symptoms, such…
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The post Abstract: Localization of Thyroid Hormone Receptor Mutant Ala382ProfsX7 appeared first on W&M Honors Fellows.

Thyroid hormone (TH) is received by thyroid hormone receptors (TRs), resulting in ligand-dependent interactions with TH-target genes. There are multiple forms of TRs which are expressed in different tissues; the TRa1 subtype is found predominantly in the central nervous system, bone, the gastrointestinal tract, and cardiac/skeletal muscle (Moran et al., 2013). Ala382ProfsX7 is a novel […]

The post Abstract: Characterizing the Subcellular Localization of Mutant TRa1 (Ala382ProfsX7) appeared first on Upperclass Monroe Scholars Summer Research Projects.