My Cake

I remember the day my boss told me about an assay when I first started at UCLA 7 years ago.  I told myself, "what did i get myself into?"  I scared myself to death because of the horror stories I heard from people who tried to do it and were unsuccessful.   To make the long story short.  I worked on this study for probably on and off since I started 7 years ago and finally last year my boss finally said to me, "remember that assay we talked about, you have to do it, our "piece de resistance" in this paper.


Let me say this, timing is everything.  In due time, this assay was developed and became commercially available.  My boss found this kit to do this ChIP assay that i was so scared to do.  I didn't have to go through the grueling process and disappointments.  Suffice to say, I did the experiments and we found that protein-dna interaction in the nucleus of the cells we were looking for, and voilà, got good results with the first try.  A very good icing on the cake I should say.  Patience is virtue indeed.  Waiting it out to do this assay saved me a lot of anguish.  
Luck is on our side.  Science didn't like it, however, PNAS will be publishing it!   Loving what you do makes it more fun.


Data and paper, the two incredible ingredients that can put a smile on my face any day. That's my kind of cake! 

100th Time

I was just reading Cherie's post about her reaching 100 posts.  

On that note, today is also the 100th time the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology has been awarded, and to more than one woman.  They are Elizabeth H. Blackburn , Carol W. Greider  and Jack W. Szostak.  This 2009 Nobel Prize for Medicine is for the discovery of "how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase."

I bet you someone probably celebrated their 100th birthday today. 

Well, I hope this short post brightened your day! 

Something Old

Ok friends, this one is quite unique and an antique.  A blast from the past.  First, you have to guess.

 Any guesses?

It's an incubator!     

Well kids, better luck next time!

 

Something Blue

SPG stain on Spleen

I'm learning this new technique where I use a cryostat to cut tissue to about  16 micrometer in thickness and immediately stain the section.  Voila, this is what you see under a fluorescence microscope.  That fluorescent blue in the photo shows nerve fibers running through the mouse spleen.  Isn't science just magical! Or at least make pretty pictures, hahaha.