Day 29- Frogs Make The Best Hats (Biochemistry Purdue II)

Happy Tuesday! Aimee here. We’ve been locked in writing our research papers recently, so I thought it would be fun to include aspects of writing them in this blog. I’m not going to write formally, but I included my photos as ‘formal figures’ with captions for yall to view. (Thank you Jimmy for carrying Group 7’s formal figures!!) *Notice: the figures are a bit out of order; I am not the most organized!

This morning started off like usual; my alarm woke me up at 6:30, I snoozed it, it woke me up again, I snoozed it again… Until I opened my eyes and I was running late! I quickly got ready, then headed off to breakfast at Ford Dining Hall with Hana and Jimmy, who are also some of the few people who go to breakfast in the morning (Figure 1).

Figure 1: SSP participants going to breakfast before 8:30 lecture. Depicts Hana (left) headed to the dining hall from Honors South Dorms and Jimmy (right) halfway through his meal at Ford Dining Hall.

After breakfast, we headed off to the pharmacy building for the first lecture of the day (Figure 2). We also walked with Leyu and Andrew (from Biochem I) this morning; it’s so sad that today is their last full day here (Figure 10)! We will miss you!

Figure 2: SSPers walking to lecture. Depicts Anna O (left) walking to 8:30 lecture from Ford Dining Hall, Aimee (right) walking from lecture to lunch at Purdue Memorial Union (PMU), and Stanley (center) walking from PMU to 1:15 lecture.
Figure 10: Purdue Biochem I students Leyu (left) and Andrew (center and right) on their last full day at SSP.

We had an amazing lecture by our AD, Dr. Keithly, who discussed her research in regards to antibiotic resistance in gram positive bacteria (Figure 4). After the lecture, we headed over to Chas, our lab building, to get some work done (Figure 3). Each group is busy developing their Cdc14 inhibitors on MOE (Molecular Operating Environment) and writing their research papers. At 11:45-ish, we took a quick break to build critters with hot glue guns and pipette tips courtesy of the academic staff (Figure 8,  Figure 9).

Figure 4: SSP participants Kevin (left) and Hana (right) before 8:30 lecture.
Figure 3: Participants entering Chaney-Hale Hall of Science (Chas) building for lab. Depicts Jimmy (left) and Elaab (right).
Figure 8: SSP academic faculty: Lab assistant Meghan (left), Assistant academic director Dr. Avard (center), and Academic director Dr. Keithly (right).
Figure 9: SSPers at Chas during lab time. Depicts teacher’s assistant (TA) Ritvik (left) holding lab groups’ freezer boxes and Mingjia (right) holding a humming bird made of pipette tips she made during her break.

At around 12, we were dismissed from Chas and everyone headed off to lunch. There are many places that we can go, but my group decided to go to PMU, the Purdue Memorial Union, which has many small restaurants. I got my usual, a poke bowl, and everyone sat together chatting until it was time to go back to the pharmacy building for lecture (Figure 2).

After lunch, we were treated to a lecture by Dr. Avard, our AAD (her name is a palindrome btw!), who discussed her research in metastatic cancer. Then, we headed back to Chas to continue working on MOE and our papers. My group went into wet lab to rerun our dose-response assays (spoiler alert: the data wasn’t good ;-; ) (Figure 11).

Figure 11: Lab groups working on designing their novel inhibitors in MOE and writing their final research papers in Chas. Depicts Group 7: Aimee, Mingjia, Jimmy (left); Group 11: Bomin, Ian, Nick (center); Group 8: Stanley, Arlene, Yohanna (right).

At 5:30, we were dismissed and headed back to the dorms to change for formal dinner. Dinner was at Ford Dining Hall, where it normally is held on weekdays, and I enjoyed chatting with my fellow participants sitting at my table (Figure 12). After announcements, including the news of a Blind-Deaf-Mute challenge later in the evening, everyone walked back to the dorms together (Figure 6, Figure 7).

Figure 6: SSP participants walking to and from Ford Dining Hall dressed for formal dinner.
Figure 7: SSPers walking as a group after dinner back to Honors dorms. In the center, Ahmad (left) and Elaab (right). SSP participants spend time laughing and bonding together.

As most people went to get ice cream, I decided to take some time for myself and chill. The common areas in Honors South are great places to relax (Figure 5). The Blind-Deaf-Mute challenge afterward was extremely fun; it was interesting seeing everyone’s creations (Figure 11, Figure 12, Figure 13). Everyone hung out after the challenge until 11pm curfew, then it was good night!

Figure 5: Depicts Kendra (left) and Anna B (right) relaxing in Honors South Dorms’ common rooms.
Figure 12: Participants at Ford Dining Hall enjoying formal dinner. Depicts Riya (left) at the pizza station and Olivia (right) at the private SSP seating area.
Figure 13: SSPers getting ready for the Blind-Deaf-Mute challenge. Depicts Arlene (left) setting up the candy, Bomin (center) when instructions were given, and Yafet (right) being blindfolded right before the start of the challenge.

Today was a really eventful day. Not a single day here goes by without me being grateful for my amazing cohort. Everyone here got so close so fast; it’s such a short period of time but we spend so much time together that it feels as if I’ve known everyone for ages. The friendships here feel unique somehow, and I can’t believe that I only have one more week with these amazing people. Thank you everyone for giving me the best summer memories ever!!

Figure 14: Blind-Deaf-Mute challenge commences. Lillian, Nick, and Ryan (left) directly before the Blind-Deaf-Mute challenge, and Pippin, Andrew, and Aimee during the challenge.
Figure 15: SSPers posing with their creations after the Blind-Deaf-Mute challenge. Depicts Alex, Maddox, and Kevin (left); Hana, Ryan, and Olivia (right); Jimmy, Bomin, Ryan (photobomber), and Elbert (center).

-Aimee