Week 2

On Monday and Tuesday I started in on my RNA extractions. The results? Well, maybe not so good. The yield for both was pretty low so it was a disappointingly small output for a lot of work (each extraction takes a full day to do). Wednesday and Friday were learning days for me as I got to try out a DNA removal from previously extracted RNA samples and then a subsequent RNA clean-up procedure to remove stable and small RNAs from the samples to isolate the mRNA.

Thursday was the highlight the week for me. The whole herd of interns went on an excursion to the main campus of OHSU and the new Health and Healing Center. The HHC and the new Biomedical Research Building on the hill are beyond beautiful and we learned lots about the OHSU graduate programs by talking to students in several graduate programs. I really enjoyed this trip because I love the hill to no end and I got really excited on the tour about grad school in the nerdiest way possible.