The Project ..... and Everything Else

I have been assigned my project! While it is both very exciting and pretty cool, it is also very intimidating. I am working with my mentor named Elaine, and my principal investigator Robert Forster. Both are very smart, and Elaine has really helped to make me feel more at home. She takes me to lunch with all of the chemistry post grads, and today after work, we went for a drink with all of the chem graduate students once again to the pub on campus (yes, there is a pub on campus!!) Here is a link explaining what I'm doing:

http://www.bdi.ie/research/rp3.html

I know this all looks really complicated, but it's not too bad. It's essentially trying to amplify small amounts of biomarkers in order to diagnose a disease. The disease we are dealing with is mastisis in cows, but they hope to in the future also apply it to cancer. Right now we are working on building nanoparticles.

Another link giving more background on Robert:

http://www.dcu.ie/chemistry/biographies/robert_forster.shtml

The man is very smart, has received over 2700 citations in papers because of his research. And guess what... I had to meet with him this morning to go over my project.

It wasn't bad, and I understood most of what he was saying though there are some things I'm going to have to look up before I go to bed tonight for tomorrow. There is also a stack of papers I was assigned to read, mainly for background knowledge. Take a look!!!! (hello summer haha)




Elaine is awesome. She does her best to explain everything to me in simple terms (which I need sometimes). I must have asked her 10 times today about making solutions and she answered them all no look of annoyance.

The project is a lot of electrochemistry (potentials, voltage, exciting electrons, fluorescence) which I have very little experience in. I am trying to pick it up, and hope that I will be able to make a significant contribution. Many people are able to get published after just 2.5 months, it would be awesome if I would be able to do that.

Today in lab was basics. Learning to make solutions, where things are located, how to work certain machinery, cleaning electrodes (are the worst!!!) and things of that such.

So enough about chemistry... more observations about Ireland!!

First off, they say Grand like we say Great, and Brilliant like we say Awesome. I find myself picking up their accent and inflections the more I talk with them. It's weird!!! The weather here is nice right now, probably like 75. But apparently it's supposed to rain tomorrow!! NOOOO

In my apartment complex, there are mostly Americans. I hung out with some of them last night for a little bit, and tonight to the local pub to watch the soccer game. It was enjoyable, but hope to hang out with some more of the international students.

My two housemates and I have cooked both nights, and sat around the dinner table to eat dinner. It is great to here about their different experiences in both France and Finnland. They are both very nice people, and am looking forward to getting to know the both of them a lot better.

I need to go shower (I just bought towels, so I can!!) and then read some papers!! Tomorrow will be my first night in Dublin!!!