Blogging about writing...in the lab part of the project

Welcome Jamie to the guest blogger position once again! Fun times.

So I plan on doing this post in 216 words or less because I need to save my daily typing quota for my paper ( =( sorry guys).

Anyways, Carol is still tanking along the path towards constructing the variable promoter library.

Vicki is chu chu-ing on the rails as she works hard on her paper. Emily too. They're both chu chu-ing. Except Emily might be going in the opposite direction as her spatial orientation seems a bit off (see non-existent post about B0015-J13002-luxOD47E construct). But nonetheless we are moving along! Just like Theodore.Thank you Emily for the correction. Vicki and Emily are like Thomas the Train, not Theodore the tugboat. My apologies for any confusion, pain and injuries resulting from this mistake.

Jeremy is errr... driving (?? I ran out of cool references to transportation) along, working on his paper and finishing up the signalling circuit.

Kevin is steaming away (he is a steamboat :O) as he figures out his reporter circuit and works with his rainbow colored assortment of fluorescent proteins.

Myself? I am sitting. At home. Writing my paper. First complete draft to be done in about 2 hours (yes it took me over 4 weeks to write it...but I was not working on it the ENTIRE time. Just 99.9% of it.)

In continuation of my last blog, I do not enjoy extracurriculars. Just being cool. It's really time consuming.

EDIT: Hi Jamie. I would just like to let you and our readers know that I finished my circuit today, my ethics paper draft, and my notebook updates. I hope everyone's had a productive time (in lab) today :)

<3 from Emily

How Negative Controls Became Positive

Hi, I'm Emily and I’m going into second year Biomedical Sciences. When I’m not fighting with my LuxOD47E gene, I’m usually highland dancing or playing the Oboe. In the lab, I’m in charge of the mutant LuxOD47E circuit This week I am excited to say that sequencing has confirmed that I've finally biobricked my gene of interest, LuxOD47E. Yay! This has taken a lot longer than anticipated due to several negative control contamination issues (negative controls are not my friends) and a battle with strange reappearing bands in restriction digest and PCR products. Nevertheless, this gene is now biobricked and it is on to the construction of my circuit! This week I will be trying to get the J13002 promoter in front of LuxOD47E as well as the BOO15 terminator behind. I’ll be doing this through restriction digest with EcoRI, XbaI and SpeI followed by an awful lot of verification. Maybe, just maybe I’ll see some clean negative controls! If this is successful, my circuit should be completed and sequenced by Monday!