Progress!

Busy, busy, busy, but check these little guys out! I need to figure out some conditions to separate the little bundles into individual crystals, but we're definitely getting somewhere. Think happy thoughts about X-ray diffraction.

They're not actually pretty colors like this, I'm afraid. This picture was taken with polarized light. The crystals are pretty much transparent in real life. The little flecks of crud are precipitated protein. The trick lies in getting the protein to crystallize before it crashes out.

I've been instructed to obtain a cat whisker, since that's what you use to manipulate protein crystals. Who knew? Perhaps there's a future in cat ranching for the crystallography trade. Structural genomics is all the rage these days.

P.S. Despite bouncing last season, Jorge's B12 grant (which pays for my project) scored NIH funding for the next 4 years. Woo-hoo! It's good to be funded.

Gratuitous cat picture

Another in a series of pictures of cats on the bed. Aren't they cute? Tobu isn't always this squinty, but he doesn't photograph well. He also gets kind of grumpy when Kaiyo uses him as a pillow, but what can you do? It's -6°F outside right now, so we're all getting our warmth where we can.

A new member of the household

We went to the orchid festival today, on the way between the lab and exercising and going to the grocery store, and Anita was unable to resist the lure of this charming fellow here. It's a Phalaenopsis, apparently, which means nothing to me, but the information sheet they gave us claims it's one of the easiest orchids to keep, which is good. The only plant I've really been able to maintain of late is parsley, but Anita is better than I am at that sort of thing.

She refuses to give it a name. I think I'll call it "Phil".

Science!

Well, despite teaching, classes, and obstinate viruses, research progresses apace. Apparently a group at MIT is hot on our heels with the stuff I've been working on, so Jorge's been on my neck about the whole bluB project. Oy.

I have made some good progress recently. For example, now I know why the people who originally discovered this gene called it a "blush" mutant, as you can see here. I've also got pretty good genetic information pointing towards our hypothesis being correct, and towards the presence of a possible transport system. I've even had some progress on the crystallography front! They're tiny and ugly, but it's a start. Cross your fingers and think good thoughts about X-ray diffraction. All I really need now is to show activity in vitro, and I'll have a story.

If everything works out, I may be getting an undergraduate minion to help out, too!