07/30/2025 – Purdue Bacterial Genomics

What’s up SSP!!!

Today marks the last 5 days of the program 😢 ( I know very sad since it’s all ending so fast) Today was a pretty busy day as we had to get our posters done for the symposium this Saturday.

This morning I got up at 6:45 am and headed to breakfast, I was going to bring my roommate Ryan along as well but I think he needed a little bit more sleep 😴.

In the first part of the lecture we were mainly working on the posters. The hardest part about this process was that we had to summarize all the exciting research we did this summer on a 36×48 paper. To combat this figures helped a lot since an image can tell many words, you have to learn to be concise but also give the right blend of quality. 

<Here’s a picture of all of us working this morning>

Next TA Guiliano gave an informative but also funny TA talk about his fav bacteria and some processes of developing bacterial resistance as well as studies. 

<TA Guiliano explaining how DNA Affinity Chromatography works>

Next we went back to research time 🤪. In my group we found a 24-base pair insertion in our second mutated strain in the 50s ribosomal protein L22 with less than 48 hours to go till when our posters are due… We had to find all of the information about the mutation, change in protein structure and function in time and present it with quality. (Challenge accepted 😎) 

The first part of this session began with Dr. P and I reaching out to Dr. Zhang’s lab in National University of Singapore (NUS) to give us a predicted model of the updated protein structure with the mutation. Dr. Zhang reached out to me later in the day with the package so he’s cool for that ❤️ 

After digging for a quite a while ( I sat with Dr. Xu 30 mins after we got dismissed yesterday  to go get ready for dinner  read more on the affects of the updated protein structure on the function by choice)  I found a lead!! My eyes lit up with joy ( Dr. Xu can attest 🙂 ) as I finally found something that made sense. 

It’s the little moments like this that make SSP so memorable: the many victories and battle you must fight to reach your goal. 

However since I was initially confused on how this worked I asked Dr. P to explain it to me. 

Next, I went to Panera with my friends and waited in line to get our orders. Biochem (another SSP group at Purdue) had many of their participants waiting in line as well so it was quite lengthy. 

<Picture of my friend Binqi and I after waiting in line for almost 15 mins 🙃> 

After I got my turn I ordered a You-Pick-2 combo of a Chipotle chicken sandwich and broccoli cheddar soup. I also tried the prommogrannete herb tea for the first time and I gotta admit it tasted pretty darn good 😁.

We saw a “coke-mobile” as we like to call it here along the way and said hi to it.

Next we went back to ABE to work on posters but before that we all practiced for our community songs for the talent show this Friday. 

After working on the posters a bit we went to dinner at the Earhart dining hall. I got some pasta, cucumbers, and a spring roll as well as some chocolate ice cream to top it off.

We went back to ABE again to finalize the posters to ensure they were ready for printing. 

<Here’s a picture of all of us locked in during tonight’s study session> 

Here’s a picture of my group and I with Dr. P after we turned in our posters. Hurrahh!!

After today’s busy worked day I looked some time to cool off by hanging out with my friends in the dorm common room.

After relaxing a bit I decided to learn how to make “bead-bracelets”. My friend Jonah taught me how to make them as well as some cool tips and tricks 🙂

I made mine about “Bayern” this represents my favorite soccer team FC Bayern Munich as well as the state from which I was born in Germany, Bavaria or Bayern.

After making bracelets it was close to bedtime so I decided to get some shut eye and start the next day.

Today was a really packed and exciting day and I hope you enjoyed my blog!!

Surya

Hi im Surya I’m from MI, but originally born in Erlangen, Germany. I like to play the trumpet as well as play tennis and soccer. I LOVE math, genomics, and biochemistry and would love to work at the intersection of them in the future through clinical and research applications.