Linda

Hey guys!

A little about myself:

I am pretty much the most clumsy and uncoordinated person ever; I bump into things and bruise easily. Fortunately, this has not proved to be catastrophic in my lab yet (little do they know). I fear bugs and tsetse flies and tapeworms and generally all parasitic protozoa. Around new people, I tend to be reserved, polite, and friendly. With people I know well, I'm generally hyperactive-crazy, incoherent, and hilarious. I loved to pounce on my friends in fits of tigger-worthy joy from behind...up until I was side-stepped one day, and thereby fell to the ground on my bum with an audible thump and acquired the condition known as coccydynia (inflammation of the tailbone, self-diagonsed off medecinenet.com). I can find the most random things hilariously funny and I love to laugh and make other people laugh, even if its at me and my awkward antics or germophobicness or hypochondriacness. I love to get lost in a good book, and I am impatiently anticipating the arrival of the last Harry Potter book! I love to reminise about Arizona, sunsets, moutains, and stress-free days. I love swimming, because it's a no-contact sport and I love to break it down to club music when I think no one is watching. And as a final caution, I have a voracious appetite for everything that does not contain trans fat or carcinogenic grill marks, so hide your food.



About my lab!:


I am working in the Experimental Surgery department in the Medical Sciences Research Building with Dr. William (Bill) Parker as my mentor. The project I will be working on involves a mouse that has been living in a sterile bubble for the duration of two years. It has not been exposed to any pathogens or bacteria, except for a certain strain of e. coli bacteria that has been dripped into a spout extending from the bubble structure. After this period however, two different strains of e. coli were discovered: a fast-growing strain and a slow-growing strain. The hypothesis I will be testing is that when inside the small intestines of the mouse, these bacteria had been growing at the same rate. From a broader perspective, this experiment could possibly further tap into the pool of knowledge regarding bacteria behavior and evolution.



So far, I have been learning some laboratory techinques and procedures from Mary Lou so that I will be well prepared for the experiment. I have entered the realm of preparing mucin (mucus from a pig's intestines) and BSA (Bovine Serum Albumin Fraction), running dialysis, concocting media cocktails, incubating a certain mysterious "bacteria 315", and preparing stick well cell cultures to test the bacteria growth on BSA versus BSA+ Mucin. Hopefully everything will turn out right!

Ta ta for now!