The First Week – an Introduction to the Working World

I say the first week, but really it was only my first two days.

My first day was Thursday.  I was nervous to begin because I have never had a "real" job other than babysitting. However, I was also excited to begin this new experience, especially since there would be no homework!  Even though that's not entirely true, I know the stress associated with this internship will be far different (and hopefully far less) than that with my first year of college.  So, this was my introduction to the working world.

These first two days I have already learned a lot, mostly about the research project I will be involved in on determining the mechanism of manganese oxidation by Pseudomonas putida.  I have very little background in biology and genomics, so my mentor, Kati, has provided information to help me begin to understand this project.  I find it fascinating, and it's refreshing to start learning something from scratch knowing I won't have a big test on it in ten weeks.

I will have two main projects throughout this summer.  The first, to provide information to update a grant application, will be to try to find clues to the function of manganese oxidation.  We will begin on Monday by trying to test the ability for oxidizing versus non-oxidizing Pseudomonas putida to withstand various environmental stresses such as hydrogen peroxide and UV light.  The hypothesis is that the manganese oxidizing bacteria will have a better survival rate if the function of manganese oxidation is to protect the bacteria.

The second main project during my internship will be "to generate a constitutively active MnxR protein to increase transcription of its target genes."  So, after an hour or two of lectures on background information from Kati, I have come to some understanding of this statement.  MnxR is a transcription activator, meaning for the transcription of a specific gene sequence to occur, MnxR must be attached to the RNA polymerase.  The MnxR protein has two forms, one which can activate transcription and one which can't.  We are going to try to find a mutant of MnxR which has a higher activity, so more of the target genes will be transcribed.

I think.

These first two days have been a great introduction to the program and to my project, and I'm excited to begin this summer.  I appreciate this wonderful opportunity I've been given, and I know this summer I will get to learn a lot about research, science, and working.  And hopefully a little about Pseudomonas putida too.