Where the Project is Now
I accomplished a lot this summer, even though it went so fast. At the end of my last blog, I said that I was going to continue the two different lines of fish we have (gclm and gstp2) and work on troubleshooting the gstp1 primers so that we could continue that research. Our goals for July and August changed a little bit, though. We haven't started troubleshooting the primers yet, but once the school year starts, we plan on taking time for that. For our gclm line, we are sending off F2 data to NGS and we expect to get those results back once the school year starts. Once we have that data back, we can decide what our next steps will be. Lastly, our gstp2 line had a slower start, but we are currently raising F1 fish that we tested for possible mutations with HRMA. When those fish are older, we will sample their DNA to send to NGS.
Preparing to Present
This month, I recorded a video presentation for my McNair Summer Research Institute. Since my research partner and I will both be presenting our research in the next year, my mentor and I decided that I would focus on the gclm line while my partner focuses on gstp2. In my presentation for McNair, I decided to talk about what sequencing I have done so far and what I plan to do as the fall semester starts. I will also be adapting this into a poster for MidBrains, a Midwest Regional Neuroscience Conference taking place in October. Although I will be presenting the same information, there are a few main differences in these two presentations.
For my McNair presentation, I will be talking about my research to people who aren't biologists, and MidBrains will have a lot of biologists and neuroscientists. The different audiences will influence how in-depth I discuss my research and how much jargon I use. It was pretty challenging to make my presentation for McNair because I wanted to get the main points across without overwhelming the audience with ideas they don't understand. On the other hand, when I go to MidBrains I can spend less time explaining background ideas and more time on my methods and data in a specific way. Another main difference between these two are the type of presentation. Doing a poster presentation will allow me to interact with my audience more, as well as point things out in a more explicit manner. When I recorded my presentation for McNair, I had to point things out with my mouse and I didn't have an audience to feed off of. Both have their perks, but I am excited to get to in-person presentations.
My Goals This Fall
This fall is going to be busy for me, so I wanted to set a few goals for myself. They aren't all research related, but they're important to me. My first goal is to work on grad school applications at least one hour a week. I want to work on it way more than that, but there are some weeks this semester where I will not have enough time with classes, marching band, and my jobs. I already have a list of 10 schools I want to apply to with application dates, faculty of interest, and information about financial aid, among other things. I want to make sure I spend enough time working on applications so that I don't rush them right before they are due. They all have different due dates, as well, so I can't just push it off until later.
My next goal is to get through the sequencing data before the McNair Research Symposium in December. I want to be able to talk about that data at my next presentation, but I don't think I'll have it ready before my poster is due for MidBrains. Lastly, I want to reach out to different faculty at the schools I will be applying to. I have emailed a couple of them and asked about their lab's research, what it looks like day-to-day, and what student research looks like on their campus. So far, I have contacted two professors from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, since that is my first choice in grad schools right now. All three of these goals are important for my future research, and I want to give each task all the time it needs. I'm hoping that as the semester gets going, the regular schedule will help me set aside time for all these goals.