Week of 10/16/16

This past Tuesday, I visited RPI for my first lab session! I received my own official badge that allows me access into the CBIS building and laboratories. This was a cause for great celebration for both me and Yi, the graduate student I am working with (who no longer has to race to meet me at various entrances when I call to be allowed entry into the building).

Besides receiving m own visitor's badge (and a pretty rad pair of safety goggles), Tuesday was the first day of official (ish) lab work for me. Yi took me around the lab, giving me a tour of his designated station and all the equipment we will be using throughout this process. I discovered the centrifuge, uber-fancy pipettes, protein fridge, and more. Once I was familiarized the area and debriefed on laboratory safety, we began working.

Since it was my first official day, Yi wanted to make sure I understood the basics of lab techniques we will be regularly employing during our work this year. We talked about calculating protein concentration using absorbance, the molar absorptivity constant, and path length (hello, Beer's Law!). Essentially, calculating the protein concentration can be boiled down to dividing the absorbance by the absorptivity coefficient (m.a. constant x path length). I was really happy to discover that I already knew and understood what Yi was explaining to me before he finished, and his recap of Beer's Law was a great refresher. We were both (at least, I think it was both of us!) pleased to realize that my science background had prepared me well for this experience, and it was time for lab work to begin.

I participated in a simple spectroscopy demonstration under Yi's supervision. We took a small amount of DI water and placed it onto the slit of the spectrophotometer, Then, we closed the machine and allowed it to run. This set the blank for the machine. Next, we loaded a small amount of our protein sample onto the slit, and allowed the machine to run. Eventually, the computer relayed the result of the concentration of our protein sample. How does a spectrophotometer work, you ask? Here is a simple picture that explains, though ours did not occur within a cuvette.

Spectrophotometer diagram. Source: http://chem.libretexts.org/Core/Physical_and_Theoretical_Chemistry/Kinetics/Reaction_Rates/Experimental_Determination_of_Kinetcs/Spectrophotometry

After the lab seesion was done, I went back to Yi's office and watched videos about amino acids. I need to be easily familiar with the different groups- knowing their structures, properties, and names will be crucial for this experiment. I've continued my exploration of amino acids this past week, and hope that I will be a pro on all the R groups this time next week. Wish me luck studying!