Half Birthdays and Whole Genome Sequencing Analysis
Although I wholeheartedly believe that genomics is superior to astrophysics, today was the first day at SSP when I woke up thinking about the stars. However, it wasn’t just any random star that caught my attention; I woke up thinking about the sun.
Today is my half birthday, which means I have officially traveled around the sun 17.5 times. That’s ½ a revolution (or 648,000 arcseconds in astro-speak) away from 18. Not only is 18 my favorite number, but also it’s the day of the month that I was born. Although I don’t think about astronomy often, the stars were definitely on my side on July 18th at SSP.
Last night, we had the incredible opportunity to travel to White Sands National Park at sunset. In addition to taking a gargantuan amount of pictures (thanks Emily), we sat and talked as the sun went down. Hugo and I attempted sledding down the sand dunes, yet we were largely unsuccessful.
Caption: Us featuring Dr. Catalan’s son Dante 😊
After sleeping through breakfast this morning (per usual), my roommate Vageesh, Kano, and I walked to Foster Hall. As we arrived two minutes before lab, we were greeted with an unpleasant surprise: the AC in the lab was broken. Fortunately, our DNA samples had been sent off for sequencing, so we were able to enjoy the pleasant cool air of the lecture room for the majority of the day. Nevertheless, we still had to take apart our chemostats and set them up for autoclaving.
Following three arduous weeks of blood, sweat, and tears working with and repairing our chemostats, it wasn’t very tough to say goodbye. I think I speak for my fellow members of lab group W. rizz when I say that chemostat SSP14 caused more pain than joy. With tough times comes great reward, and I am incredibly excited to get our genome sequencing results back soon.
After a great lecture by Dr. Messner on writing the “Materials and Methods” section of our manuscripts, I walked to Taos for lunch. Today they served coconut rice, which reminded me of one of my favorite restaurants from home. I have yet to try authentic New Mexican food here in Las Cruces, and I remain hopeful that Dr. Catalan follows through on his promise of giving us a taste.
Because our wet lab experience has mostly come to a close, our post-lunch game plan consisted of everything bioinformatics. My lab mate Delilah and I tried to keep our eyes open as we parsed through endless tabs of the NCBI database, Minimap2, Flye, and Google searches on how to convert a fasta file to PFA. I felt like I was bordering on Minia (Galaxy users will get the pun). Due to our persistence and determination, we were able to get it done in the end.
Caption: Galaxy ft. Chloe, Vageesh, and Eva
At dinner, I had the privilege of having another great talk with Dr. Messner, Kano, and Hugo. From funny stories about childhood to deep talks about family and religion, I always leave the table with a smile on my face. Though it was our last meal together, I am excited to see what the next seating chart has in store.
Caption: Dr. Messner, Kano, Hugo, and me at dinner
Many moments later, I traversed back to Foster to finish my problem set and write this blog post. The sun is about to set over the adobe clay roofs of New Mexico State University, and the wind is starting to sway the palm trees side to side. Sunset usually means the bugs start to come out, but I’m luckily equipped with plenty of bug spray. Despite the assortment of bug bites lining my ankles, the glass is always half full at SSP.
