Week 8

This week I is my seventh week because I wasn't here for the first week.  That means I have three weeks to finish up my project, write my paper, and create my final presentation.  Yikes.  I can't believe how fast this summer internship has gone.  This next week I will be moving on to the DGGE.  If we get it right the first time I should be a great place to work on my paper at the end of next week because Suzanne will be gone and I will have data to write my paper on.  If we have troubles with the procedure which is possible because it is the first time either of us have done this process we will set it up again.  I am excited to be moving on from PCRs because I definitely had trouble getting those to work.  This week I finally got all my samples to amplify in both the 12 carbon and 13 carbon.  I was determined to get them to amplify though because I had worked hard to get them to amplify and I wasn't going to give up on my samples.

This week Alex gave her presentation and she did a very nice job.  I am a little nervous for my presentation but I realize I have time to practice.  It was good to see a final presentation given because now I understand exactly what is required in our presentations.  I am one of the first people to give my presentation the last week and I am excited to show everyone my results and how my project finally turned out. 

On Monday, Suzanne and I will be stting up the gel for DGGE.  It is imperative to be extremely careful when doing this protocol because the gel has to correct for the DGGE process to run smoothly.  I am eager to start looking at something else.  Also next week I will try to work on the archaea bands.  They should be interesting to look at.

I am having a great time at my internship and really enjoy my project.