Poster Session!

So, if you've been following the blog, that last post might have looked a little funny to you, I apologize! I have a QR code on my poster that links to that post so that if anyone was interested, they could look up a bit more information on me and my work.

What is a poster session? Well, this session was for all undergraduates doing research at MSU this summer. There was everything from my little molecular biology corner to surveys on safety in the workplace. Each category has a group of evaluators who are familiar with the field of research and they ask you to explain your poster to them. The first couple times, I had no idea what to do and was sort of fumbling all over my poster and jumping around but once I realized where to start and what to highlight, it was just like giving at tour at the Windmill! I actually had a lot of fun and I also remembered how much I love graphic design. 

One of the rare occasions on which I wore makeup and something other than biking shorts this summer.

Well, just four more days left, I can't believe it's almost over!

More Information from Poster Fair

Rachel Polet
Calvin College
Biology, B.S.
Minor: Chemistry

rachelpolet22@gmail.com

Poster PDF

Great Lake Bioenergy Research Center

MSU is a beautiful place

I've been looking through all my photos from this summer and it occurred to me that the majority of them are pictures of MSU's campus. I guess I'm kind of enamored by it, it's so gorgeous!

The Horticultural Demonstration Gardens behind my building

Sanford Nature Preserve

Beal Botanical Garden

I love the rain.

Outside of the Biochemistry building where I eat lunch.

My building!

Field Trip: MSU's Kellogg Biological Station

This past Friday, our little group of scientists had the opportunity to visit MSU's Kellogg Biological Station. What is a biological station, you ask? Well, I can't speak for any other station out there but this particular site is an impressive collection of ecological research facilities. And by facilities, I mean fields, ponds, forests, rivers, bird sanctuaries, dairy farms, and probably more.

Our first stop at KBS was at their Long Term Ecological Research site. Since the 1980's, the program has been maintaining several fields of various crops and natural vegetation in an effort to understand how humans and landscapes interact.

This is their experimental poplar habitat. These trees are only four years old.

After a tasty taco lunch, we visited a gorgeous bird sanctuary. It houses mostly swans and geese but they also have facilities for caring for injured birds of prey. We got a close look at some hawks, falcons, and even a bald eagle. I couldn't help myself; I took a ton of pictures and I had to put them all up :)

Red-tailed hawk with an amputated wing

Endangered Chinese pheasants

The last stop on the tour was their experimental ponds. These things were weird. 

They have 18 identically shaped and sized ponds for researchers to manipulate and study. It's just such a strange thing to see in a landscape.

So that was Friday! I'm about halfway through my program now, and things are still going pretty well! I just registered for a poster presentation at the end of July so I have a lot of reading to do between now and then.

Also, I AM starting to really like Lansing. That is all.

Quick Update

So! A lot has been happening here over the past week or two! I'll make a list of some of the highlights because I love lists.

• I have successfully cloned 10 different proteins! How did I do that? Well, I followed some instructions, mixed some chemicals in very tiny tubes, put it in a machine and voila it looks the same but now it's been cloned (a LOT of times)!
• I started training for a 5K because I've always wanted to but I'm too lazy and noncommittal to actually do it. Now I have all kinds of time on my hands so there are no excuses.
• In addition to working out my legs and stamina and all that by running and biking, I am getting an arm workout too! Today, I had my arms above my head basically all day because I had to measure things with a serological pipette instead of a Pasteur pipette. Woe is me.

A nice, normal-sized Pasteur pipette

Stupid, elongated serological pipettes

• My new roommate moved in while I was home for the weekend. So that's new. Also, the KFC around the corner disappeared while I gone.
• Dinner tonight was my own original creation – no recipes or anything – and it was not that bad!
• Ice cream from Quality Dairy is fantastic and sooo cheap. Yay.
• Today, I also got to work with some of the most dangerous chemicals we use in the lab: phenol and chloroform. To obtain such things, all we had to do was make a trip to the chemical grocery store across the street, sign some things, and away we go with our toxic goods.

Just hanging out with my bottle of chloroform. NBD.

• On my run today, I happened upon a fantastic Lansing destination: the Planet Walk. I was running on the Lansing River Trail and all of sudden I'm running past this sign that says "Venus". Later there's another one and another until finally, I stop and check it out.
  
  Turns out, they have these signs posted along the trail in exact proportions to their locations in space! For those of you who don't know, I have a small obsession with space and stars. I'll be coming back here again to travel through our solar system for sure.

The Commute

I know it hasn't been that long but considering the events of today, I thought I would just do a post dedicated to my commute :)

So this is my trusty steed:

It's a 1987 Schwinn that I found on Craigslist from a guy who used to be a bike mechanic (so it was in perfect condition, score)!

So anyway, first day of the commute was a BLAST! ...That was a total lie, there was a torrential downpour the ENTIRE time and I got lost because of all the construction. It would have been miserable but I left early enough that I still got there with time to spare (and dry off in the bathroom).

Other than that, I've perfected my ride there and can do it in under 20 minutes (faster than riding the bus!) but then I always wander on my way back, I don't think I've come straight back once.

Now for today. It was raining when I woke up so I checked the weather to see if it would continue. It said 10% for the next few hours but then 70% for the afternoon so I decided today was going to be my first day riding the bus! I've been avoiding it for a while because I have rather long list of bad memories using public transportation (usually because I can never get off at the right stop):

• When I was a freshman at Calvin, I took the Rapid to visit my friends at Grand Valley. The ride there was fine and took about an hour but on the way back, I got off at the wrong stop, ended up walking around downtown Grand Rapids alone for an hour in January, just missed my bus and had to wait another hour for the very last bus of the day.
• Then there was Mexico. One of the first days in Merida, I couldn't find the bus stop because it had changed due to construction. I suck at speaking Spanish so I couldn't understand anyone's directions and they couldn't understand the problem. It was kind of horrifying.
• I once tried to use the Rapid to get to Grand Valley on a Saturday but the website information did not properly reflect the actual bus schedule so when I got to the central station, I thought I was stranded and had a mini meltdown.   
• And then there's today: I got off at the wrong stop again and was running behind so I thought walking would be faster than waiting to see if the bus I needed would come. I didn't think it would be a problem because weather.com said there was only a 10% chance of rain. WRONG! It was once again, a torrential downpour the entire time I was walking. Luckily when I showed up to work looking like a drowned rat, everyone else was too.

That being said, I'm glad I was forced to use the bus today because maybe now I won't be so hesitant to take it to Meijer (except why go to Meijer when there is a KROGER on the way to work?!).

One Week Down!

So I've been in Lansing for over a week now and then I see this video ^ and this U.S. News article on Madcap and I start getting really homesick for some G-Rap (sorry Hamilton/Holland). Don't get me wrong, Lansing is a great city and not that different from Grand Rapids but I've come to think of GR as my home and I think its a really awesome place and I miss it!

I feel like an intruder in Lansing, especially considering that I'm only here for 10 weeks. But, so far, there are a few things I'm starting to appreciate: MSU's campus is big, beautiful, and bike friendly, there are a few good coffee shops (although nothing close to my house and nothing as good as Rowsters), and there are a TON of places to get food and drinks, even within walking distance. Also, I have yet to get out of work early enough to check out the farmer's market or go for an extended bike ride so hopefully I can get to that soon and it will improve my opinion of life in Lansing.

Working in the lab is just fine. There were a lot of really thick papers to read in order to orient myself to my project and I had to go to Wikipedia after every other word – that was frustrating – but now I'm doing more lab work, which, even though that can also be tedious, it's definitely more enjoyable. I still don't have a complete grasp on what I'm doing and I'm not sure I ever will. The other people in this lab have been working on this stuff for years, there's no way I'll get it all before I go!

But whether or not I understand it, I seem to be able to perform the lab procedures correctly anyway. All of my PCRs have worked very well and tomorrow, I start cloning DNA!

Genetics Research 101

In case there is someone out there reading this and in case that person does not know the first thing about genetics, here is a basic intro:

Every single living thing is made up of cells. In most of those cells, there is a small container called a nucleus. Inside that nucleus is DNA – the genetic code. If you've gone to high school in the last 50 years, you've probably seen something like the picture on the right. DNA is made up of two strands of complimentary codes: A is complemented by T and C with G. An A/T or a C/G forms a base pair. The genetic code that makes up a human consists of about 3.2 BILLION base pairs.

One major task of the cell is to maintain and use this DNA. It maintains it by replication, making a complete copy of the entire sequence. This happens in cells that are dividing (skin cells, cancer cells, etc). To use the DNA, the strands are temporarily broken apart and "read" by a protein called RNA polymerase. RNA polymerase creates a new complimentary strand using the original DNA as a template. This process is called "transcription" and the new strand is called RNA. The next step is "translation", the RNA is translated into a sequence of molecules called amino acids that make up a protein. Three nucleotides (a nucleotide is one A T G or C) code for one amino acid. Proteins can be several hundred to several thousand amino acids long.

So, there you have it. Next in this series: How do cells know when to transcribe DNA into RNA?

Also, this photo on the left depicts the central dogma of molecular biology: DNA is transcribed into RNA and RNA is translated into proteins. Why are proteins so important? Well, they do just about every dang thing a cell could ask for and more.

Oh, and feel free to ask questions! I love questions!

More about this summer.

I left out quite a few details in my previous post on what I'm doing this summer so let me just tell you a little bit more:

I'll be living in Lansing from May 27 to August 2. I found a place to live on Craigslist and it turned out that everyone who normally lives there is in the Plant Biology Ph.D program at MSU. The house is about 3.5 miles west of the plant biology building on campus and I plan to bike there everyday.

I found out about this through Calvin's Biology Department. We get a lot of emails from Oct - March with links to places you can apply for summer research. This one stood out because it had an easy application (because I had already written the essay for another application), it was in a desirable location, and most importantly, I was interested in and prepared for the research topic.

There are seven other research fellows, half of them are from MSU, and the other three are from Kalamazoo College, University of Puerto Rico, and somewhere in Wisconsin. All of us are majoring in some sort of biology or chemistry-related field and we will all be working in different labs that are run by professors and grad students from MSU.

The Moment You've All Been Waiting For...

Or maybe just me. Ever since I found out that I got this fellowship back in March, I've been waiting to hear what my actual research will be. It's still a little unclear but it looks like I will mostly be doing genetics research with an emphasis on molecular biology and biochemistry!

Today was my first day in the lab and it was not too bad as far as first days go: I spent about two hours doing online safety training and getting a tour of the lab (basically, if you screw up, your skin will melt off, you'll get cancer, and MSU will be fined hundreds of thousands of dollars) and then we went to lunch at an Indian restaurant. The afternoon was spent getting a refresher on genetics and genetics research techniques from my Danish superior.


I've had a few experiences being the only new girl but this one was unique. Just about everyone mentioned how they had read my resume but they all seemed to be under the impression that I was a biochemistry major. I hope I didn't actually say that and they just have bad memories. Overall though, the lab seems pretty nice and I think I'm really going to enjoy working there this summer!

GLBRC Research: Day 0 (Orientation)

Welcome to the blog!

Who am I?

My name is Rachel Polet, I'm a biology major and I am going to be a senior at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI. I have participated in the PHAGES research program as a freshman and have done mini research projects for class but this will be my first paid internship in biology!

What am I doing?

I am at Michigan State University, working for Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Company (GLBRC). I will be researching plant biology in the Wilkerson Lab (I am currently unaware of the details).

What is GLBRC?

GLBRC is "one of three bioenergy research centers funded by the U.S. Department of Energy to conduct transformational biofuel research."It's main facilities are in the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

The government has several reasons for funding alternative energy research: energy independence (political), cost of fuel (economic), and environmental impact. 

GLBRC focuses on four main areas of research: 

1. Developing plants that are more easily converted into fuel (what I will be working on)
2. Investigating new strategies for converting plants into usable chemicals
3. Taking those plant chemicals and finding better ways to turn them into fuels
4. Ensuring the sustainability of biofuels for mass production

This seems to be enough info for today but stay tuned for a more in-depth look at the science and politics behind biofuels.