Research and Summer

Well it's been a while.  I just got home from Houghton on Friday and have already been back to work.

Mayterm Research
I spent an extra month in Houghton doing research with Dr. Pelletier and some other students during Mayterm.  Jon and I started out doing research on adult stem cells.  Adult stem cells are not the stem cells that have controversial debates surrounding them but are the stem cells most people wish scientists would use.  Dr. Pelletier had worked with Corning during the spring semester while on sabbatical to try and get these stem cells to differentiate on a specialty surface.  Normally to get stem cells to differentiate you have to grow them in the growth media for the type of cell you want.  What we were trying to do was use a stem cell growth media while the surface that the cells adhered to decided what kind of cell they would become.  However, Corning did not send the supplies we needed until the very last week of Mayterm so during the third week of Mayterm I ended up switching research projects.  Jon however, stayed on the stem cell project as he is continuing the research with the summer research institute.

The last two weeks of Mayterm I spent with Ashley and Stephen doing a genetic study with the Amish in the area.  This was an interesting project and I was able to get to know some of the Amish in the area and learn about their ways.  Propionic acidemia (PA) is a inherited recessive metabolic disorder.  It is caused by an enzyme (propionyl-CoA carboxylase) not working properly and can lead to a build up of propionic acid in the brain and heart.  This can cause seizures and serious heart problems.  In the state of NY newborn screening for PA did happen until 10 years ago.  This means that there can be people with PA who don't know they have it.  It was our hope that we would be able to identify some individuals who did not know they had PA.  We spent lots of hours in the lab after we had DNA samples donated but it was still a good time.

Summer
I am now home working at Hannaford like I have every summer.  I will also end up going to the animal hospital whenever I can.  I have many little projects that I want to do this summer.  Some even include quilting so keep an eye out for what is going on here this summer.