НАУКА.

Hey all,

I still haven't caught up with blogging, but I will try to go through the next few days quickly to get back on track. 

After arriving back in Moscow Tuesday morning, all I wanted was to sleep and be alone with my bed and Netflix, but alas, I still had a day's work ahead of me. I arrived around 11am and then Peter, myself, and Katya (the other person I've been working with... Her name is Katya, not Natasha oops) all piled into Peter's car to go to a different institute to work. The institute is another one of the MANY scientific labs in this area, however, it beheld an "ultracentrifuge," which our institute was in need of. Peter's wife also works at this other institute, so we got to meet her as well. It was interesting to see another scientific complex here... they look pretty much the same. (Surprise, surprise. #communism). 

Anyways, we set up camp there, ran samples, put samples into buffers, resuspended things, and ultimately, put the mixtures into the ultracentrifuger for 2 hours. During those two hours, Katya, Peter, and I went to a nice Italian lunch restaurant called "Primavera." The interior walls were replaced with windows, and there were nice views of the city. We ordered pizza, and it was soo yummy since it had lettuce, cheese, tomatos, chicken, etc. It was a confused pizza (since it looked like a salad), but a delicious one. 

We talked about movies, books, driving, neurodegeneration, life in general.... I felt so adult-y. They're both very nice and inviting. I was hesitant to go since I was so tired from the weekend and train, but they were persistant in their invitation, and I'm happy I succumbed. 

The rest of the day was filled with other science things. We aliquoted samples, did minor tasks.... The whole point, though, was to recover ribosomes via ultracentrifugation. Eventually, they want to examine fragmented mRNA, but before that, they need to look at ribosomes (which help to build proteins by joining amino acids together in a polypeptide chain). The ribosomes also create the order of the chain by the direction of mRNA. Ultimately, I suppose what all that means is that they are looking at how proteins and DNA are made, which are linked to ideas of stem cells and cancer. It's hard right now to see the big picture since we have done only a VERY small part of it, but I've tried to get as much as possible. Later on, depending on results, they want to conduct reverse transcription and then amplify results with PCR.... But that could be a long ways away. 

The project also is somehow involved with synaptosomes. I will explain the EXTREMELY shortened version of neurons in order to explain synaptosomes. Within a neuron, there is an axon, cell body, and dendrite. Dendrites typically recieve an action potential (electrical impulse) and propogate this impulse to the cell body and down the axon. The signal typically propogates neurotransmitters (chemicals) which then do a whole bunch of other things. However, before an NT is released, it passed down a lot of neurons. Between each neuron is a synapse, where you will find synaptosomes. Synaptosomes can be obtained via fractioning using density gradient centrifugation. Voo-ah-la! 

So anyways, that's some of the project I've been doing, and some of what I've been working on. We ended the day on Tuesday around 8pm, and Peter drove me back to Butlerova Ulitsa and I went home, happy to settle in at last.

The next day, we began a Western Blot. I've done parts of Western's many many times (specifically staining and blocking, and developing films). I've also done a handful of gel electrophoreses. However, I had never done an entire Western from start to finish. Wednesday and Thursday were dedicated to this task. Briefly, a western blot is an analytical technique that identifies specific proteins in a sample. Westerns contain techniques including gel electrophoresis, staining and blocking with antibodies, and then the development of the film. It was fun to do the whole thing start to finish. Hm... I think that's all there is to say about that. I'm getting to do a lot so that's nice. Not much on my own yet, but I'm still feeling out the lay of the land and finding out where things are, etc. Also it's weird because our lab has multiple rooms on multiple floor; everything is very spread out. 

Also between the days Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I watched a few movies (in typical steph-in-russia fashion). These included:

1. "Detachment" -- About teachers (specifically a sub) in an impovished district. At times, melodramatic, but overall loved it. Interesting things (and issues) to think about regarding America's public school system. 

2. "Still Alice" -- Woman 50 year old professor at Columbia who developes Alzheimers. Sad but interesting since I've studied neurodegeneration diseases quite a bit.

3. "Electrick Children" -- 15 year old girl who grows up in a Morman community and believes she became pregnant via rock songs on a newfound cassett tape. Pretty weird but intriguing. 

4. "The Imposter" -- (I watched it Friday morning) SOOOOOO GOOD. Everyone needs to watch this movie. Documentary about a man who impersonates a missing boy.... and everyone seemingly believes him.... Chilling. 

And one last shameless plug for a movie I watched with Alec before leaving for Moscow: Oldboy. Definitely one of the craziest movies I have ever seen. I will never forget it. It's about a man who is imprisoned for 15 years and then suddenly released... and that's all I can say. But you need to watch it!!!!! 

Ok done. I will discuss Friday in the next post. That's all for now folks! Xo.