I was happy to receive the first place award along with Liam Longo for our picture of PV2 (Longo PNAS 2013) at the art in STEM research gallery exhibit today.
Liam has now left to start his post doctoral studies at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel! I wish him only the best.
I am lucky to have been selected for the Art in STEM Research gallery exhibit held at Florida State University. It is to be hosted by the Graduate Women in Science (GWIS) organization at Dirac Science Library. I will be presenting a crystal structure of PV2 (Longo PNAS 2013), a reduced alphabet protein I work with in the Blaber lab.
As a fan of both art and science, I feel this is a neat outreach opportunity to showcase my research to the general public by displaying an aesthetic and elegant conformation that a folded beta trefoil protein can adopt.
I am pleased to be second author on Liam Longo’s manuscript titled “A Single Aromatic Core Mutation Converts a Designed “Primitive” Protein from Halophile to Mesophile Folding” which has been accepted to Protein Science!
I am happy to announce that I have been selected as one of this year’s McKnight Doctoral Fellows! Only 50 people receive this award annually and I am extremely honored to have been chosen. This fellowship will help support me during my graduate career and includes a $5,000 tuition waiver along with an additional $12,000 for my yearly stipend!
In addition, I will be attending yearly FEF McKnight conferences and workshops dedicated to aiding fellows with a comprehensive system of academic support.
I am beyond excited for this amazing opportunity!
Happy to say I finally diffracted a crystal I set up by myself. The experience was awesome! I will never tire of being able to physically see proteins that I helped design.
Here is a picture of the lucky crystal!
I am happy to announce that I have decided to join the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program at Florida State University’s College of Medicine!
This past Friday, December 13, 2013 I graduated from The Florida State University with dual degrees: a Bachelors of Science in Biological Science and Chemical Science and a Bachelor of Arts in History!
Very excited for my future endeavors!
I’ve been working on a new amino acid quiz. It’s not quite finished and it’s pretty basic (read static) but eventually I hope I can make it into a fun little quiz for when I need a refresher on the amino acids!
I am happy to be a co-author on Liam Longo’s manuscript which has been accepted to the journal Cell: Structure! The paper is titled, “Alternative Folding Nuclei Definitions Facilitate the Evolution of a Symmetric Protein Fold from a Smaller Peptide Motif.”
During this project, I helped Liam with expression and purification of some “circular permutations” of FGF-1 (a protein). We discovered that circular permutation of FGF-1 is too destabilizing and none of the mutant proteins were able to fold.
Hi everyone, this is my first post! Be sure to check back here often to get updates on my research project in the Blaber Lab. I’ll also be posting some of my paintings (à la Jackson Pollock) and other fun stuff, too!