Purdue Biochemistry Day 17: Assays, Analyses, and Presentations
HELLO ALL!
I woke up refreshed after a wonderful college and career day on the 15th. Me and my incredible roommate, Nehla, walked over to ME for instructions while I ate Ritz peanut butter crackers. Dr. Das gave us some tips on our upcoming Steady State Lab. In lab, we ran our first assay! My lab team (AuraFold aka the best team with Margina and Bertan) created our own lab protocol to measure Km and Vmax. This lab was our most complicated yet with a lot of pipetting. However, the incredible power of friendship and teamwork carried us through (with some disagreements along the way). After a few trials, it was lunch time! Andrew, Nehla, Gauri, Dylan, Alanis, and I went to Indian Chipotle (Choolah) and got the best meal ever.
figure 1. Indian Chipotle
I was so full I could barely walk back. Afterwards, we continued to run more assays (rip), but we finally got a strong triplicate! Then… we had to face Excel Solver (Level 10 Boss). This program was almost impossible and broke my computer, but we did get the kinematic variables in the end after so many tears.
Figure 2. AuraFold
At around 3 pm, we met with SSP genomics program to introduce our projects together. I learned: one, SSP Biochem is way better and that their project is lame; two, I need to work on explaining my science to others more. I’m definitely glad that we took that time to practice which will help for the final poster presentation. The genomics students did introduce my group to pretty cool machines and methods, so maybe they aren’t completely losers.
DINNER TIME! Dinner is the best and worst time of the day. Earhart was decent today, but usually it’s a hit or miss. After a few weeks, the food does get a little tiring. However, the dessert NEVER misses (ice cream and cake 10/10). This probably explains why I have gained SSP 15 in just a few weeks.
Figure 3. Bike in tree
Nehla and I go back to our dorms to chud for a little bit. We play ASMR Roblox Obby, which revives our energy. At 7:30, we go to ME for TA Robby’s TA Talk! He is a super cool guy who does super cool things and is cracked at VR. TA Robby with a lot of my friends have started a run club at SSP. We usually run a few miles while blasting music through the streets of Purdue.
Figure 4. TA Robby runs
Everyone heads back to Chas for open classroom. I continue some more data analysis and work on a MOE homology modeling assignment. Thanks to every TA for answering 10 billion questions each night.
THEN IT’S DORM TIME!! Finally, we rest. My friends and I like to play Codenames or Roblox together. What a wonderful day… zzzz
With love,
Hana
-
Hana L.
