Week 1

I have made it through week 1 with no huge catastrophes! This week has been exhausting and jam packed but I have learned so much and I have really enjoyed my work in the lab.

On Monday, I met my mentor, Lydie Herfort, and she gave me a brief overview of the project. We are studying plankton blooms in the Columbia River Estuary and more specifically the role of Myrionecta rubra in these "red tides" www.stccmop.org/node/2011. Additionally we will be examining the ocurrence of ETM's and their effect on bacterial concentrations and diversity in these zones.  On Tuesday I prepared some LETS Buffer Solution and TE Buffer Solution. Additionally, I looked over the data from the latest May cruise on the New Horizon before the data was uploaded online. I also read several articles regarding M. rubra blooms and this ciliate's unique abilities (it steals the chloroplasts from its cryptophyte algae prey and shows extremely high rates of photosynthesis and exceptional jumping behavior). On Wednesday, Lydie showed me the protocol for the RNA extraction, Nanodrop analysis and electrophoresis and on Thursday I extracted RNA from 2 samples on my own.  On Thursday, Lydie and I also went over the samples we have from the latest May cruise in order to determine which samples I would extract first. Today, I extracted RNA from 4 of the May cruise samples. Below is a chart with the Nanodrop data from all of the samples I have extracted.

It's been a great week so far but also quite tiring! I am very excited to have some more relaxing time this weekend!