Hello again. As the sun streams in my window, and the colourful leaves are glowing, I feel inspired to put out another little update on things…
People:
My summer student did a great job and we now have analyzed dendritic spine densities from uninfected slices kept alive for as long as 53 days. He is preparing a poster for the Faculty of Med & Dent summer student research day in October.
Now I have a 499 student who I just threw a bunch of information at and we’ll see how she fairs. Time to start making protein fibrils!
Two post-docs are “almost” hired. I just don’t know how soon they can start, what with all the VISA requirements. The hope is for January?
Experiments:
We have repeatedly succeeded in infecting our slice cultures, and are now trying to figure out the best way to image Purkinje Cells without having to fix the slices. Our latest attempts have been with dyes and gene gunning, with partial success, but I’m not satisfied yet...
Grants:
My CFI grant is in budget finalization, meaning I put out a bunch of requests for expensive pieces of equipment and was rewarded with two large boxes full of quotes from contenders! This is not an environmentally friendly way to do this, as vendors feel the need to put big glossy portfolios together – some of which have each individual page laminated, and there are three copies of every quote. Anyway, the first goal is to purchase a confocal scope, and that order may even go out later this week. :)
The Centre:
We are ever hopeful of getting the main level containment lab up and running “soon”. The CFIA inspection went well, so we thought we were set. Then we were told that the NMR machine needed a HUGE hole in the perimeter wall in order to vent helium. (Either that or users would all be talking like Donald Duck). But, that might actually happen soon, and then, in theory, we could actually “go live” for infectious prion work in a matter of weeks. It’s about time, as our tiny tissue culture suite in containment is about maxed out in terms of personnel…
Vacation:
BIG NEWS! I took my first real vacation since starting here in January, 2009. After doing a LOT of weeks of call over the summer (and having my bike stolen from outside my building!), I finally snapped and decided to take a break. My husband and I went to Peru for 2 weeks at the beginning of September, and it was such a wonderful trip and change of pace. And you know what? Nothing disastrous happened while I was gone! I hope to do this vacation thing more regularly. Afterall, in theory I get 4 weeks per year…
Other:
I joined another musical group – Concordia Symphony, in addition to the TEMPO group. So, that plus curling, which is about to start, will occupy three of my evenings per week. I hope that is enough “other” to keep me sane in the coming year. We’ll see how long it takes me to touch base again…
Monday, September 27, 2010
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
June 1, 2010
June already, eh? Sigh. Definitely time for an update.
People:
I had two high school students in the lab for a few months, a couple days a week after school, as part of a Sanofi Bioaventis Challenge. They had hoped to solve the problem of early diagnosis in prion disease in their time here, but I had to convince them that that was a bit out of reach for their short project. Instead we looked at toxicity of prion peptides on cell culture. At least, that was the plan… At least they learned a bunch of techniques and in the process we got Western blotting working in my lab.
I also have a great summer student. It appears that in order to work in my lab, at least so far, your name must begin with J… So J and J are busily getting things done. Now if only I could find a good post-doc candidate. That is proving to be harder than I thought…
Experiments:
We have lots of slice cultures growing, and are trying to infect them now. The first 5 week infection experiment didn’t work, and we found out that a certain someone who gave us the infected source sample gave us one without any infectivity in it! You know who you are… Anyway, we now trust no one and have confirmed there is abnormal prion protein in the latest batch so hopefully we’ll have some infected slices after 5 weeks or so. Our own mice are on site now too, so that helps a lot. Now we are playing around with gene gunning our slices (yes, we shoot DNA or dye-coated beads at our slices!).
Grants:
My biggest news is that I got my Alberta Heritage Grant! It was a bit of a long shot, but I am really happy. That guarantees I have salary support for 7 years, and gives me some operating funds for 3 years. I didn’t get the PrioNet recruitment grant despite all that work, primarily because it overlapped too much with the Heritage Grant. Go figure. I am learning that navigating the nuances of different granting agencies is not as straightforward as I thought. Oh, and my other grant in the works is the infrastructure CFI grant. That was supposed to be reviewed in April and announced in May, but they had so many applications that the put off reviewing some of them (mine included) until June! So I am still waiting to hear about that so I can buy some of my more expensive pieces of equipment… We also didn’t get the NSERC grant we wanted as a Centre, but have just resubmitted, so we’ll see if we have more luck this time. My next big grant will be the dreaded CIHR grant next spring…
Travel:
I went to the American Academy of Neurology meeting in Toronto – the first time since I was a resident. It is more enjoyable when you don’t have an exam looming over you.
Other:
I wound up leading a Meet-a-Mentor initiative at the University, as part of WISEST. We did 4 teleconferences to rural junior high schools over lunch hours, doing some science and engineering labs with them. From jelly beans to volcanoes to turkey basters, it was a lot of fun (and work!). All in the name of inspiring kids to go into science or engineering…
One last tidbit – that WISEST talk I gave last summer? Well, the students enjoyed it so invited me to be their keynote speaker at their graduation last week. It was quite an experience – and a flashback to high school band renditions of Pomp and Circumstance. Anyway, my two take-home messages were “Be happy” and “Follow your passions”. I hope I can live up to that too…
People:
I had two high school students in the lab for a few months, a couple days a week after school, as part of a Sanofi Bioaventis Challenge. They had hoped to solve the problem of early diagnosis in prion disease in their time here, but I had to convince them that that was a bit out of reach for their short project. Instead we looked at toxicity of prion peptides on cell culture. At least, that was the plan… At least they learned a bunch of techniques and in the process we got Western blotting working in my lab.
I also have a great summer student. It appears that in order to work in my lab, at least so far, your name must begin with J… So J and J are busily getting things done. Now if only I could find a good post-doc candidate. That is proving to be harder than I thought…
Experiments:
We have lots of slice cultures growing, and are trying to infect them now. The first 5 week infection experiment didn’t work, and we found out that a certain someone who gave us the infected source sample gave us one without any infectivity in it! You know who you are… Anyway, we now trust no one and have confirmed there is abnormal prion protein in the latest batch so hopefully we’ll have some infected slices after 5 weeks or so. Our own mice are on site now too, so that helps a lot. Now we are playing around with gene gunning our slices (yes, we shoot DNA or dye-coated beads at our slices!).
Grants:
My biggest news is that I got my Alberta Heritage Grant! It was a bit of a long shot, but I am really happy. That guarantees I have salary support for 7 years, and gives me some operating funds for 3 years. I didn’t get the PrioNet recruitment grant despite all that work, primarily because it overlapped too much with the Heritage Grant. Go figure. I am learning that navigating the nuances of different granting agencies is not as straightforward as I thought. Oh, and my other grant in the works is the infrastructure CFI grant. That was supposed to be reviewed in April and announced in May, but they had so many applications that the put off reviewing some of them (mine included) until June! So I am still waiting to hear about that so I can buy some of my more expensive pieces of equipment… We also didn’t get the NSERC grant we wanted as a Centre, but have just resubmitted, so we’ll see if we have more luck this time. My next big grant will be the dreaded CIHR grant next spring…
Travel:
I went to the American Academy of Neurology meeting in Toronto – the first time since I was a resident. It is more enjoyable when you don’t have an exam looming over you.
Other:
I wound up leading a Meet-a-Mentor initiative at the University, as part of WISEST. We did 4 teleconferences to rural junior high schools over lunch hours, doing some science and engineering labs with them. From jelly beans to volcanoes to turkey basters, it was a lot of fun (and work!). All in the name of inspiring kids to go into science or engineering…
One last tidbit – that WISEST talk I gave last summer? Well, the students enjoyed it so invited me to be their keynote speaker at their graduation last week. It was quite an experience – and a flashback to high school band renditions of Pomp and Circumstance. Anyway, my two take-home messages were “Be happy” and “Follow your passions”. I hope I can live up to that too…
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Jan 12, 2010
Happy New Year!
Where have I been you ask? Well, after my last entry, we successfully started preparing brain slice cultures, and even imaged some on a confocal microscope. This was really a miracle of circumstance, as a colleague happened to have extra mice pups delivered unexpectedly, which would be sacrificed without purpose unless we needed them. They were to be the appropriate age within a week of my lab tech (who I will call J for the purposes of this blog) starting, and we had nothing set up yet, let alone all the reagents required for the experiment. But, somehow J managed to pull everything together and we were actually slicing by early the following week. Then, it turned out we were having a demo for confocal scopes in our building, so we were actually able to bring our freshly prepared slices and look at them on confocal - all within 1.5 weeks of J starting at the lab! Since then we had fortune to have another batch of mice prior to Xmas and made better cultures on this second round. Unfortunately, the cultures still died, but we think we are using too much media on top of the slices and impairing oxygen diffusion. Soon we should have our own mice so we are less dependent on others for sources.
After a week of call at the end of November, I had some "fun" submitting my PrioNet recruitment grant. There was a lot of last minute confusion regarding who had to sign what, and on the day everything was to be couriered to the agency, the final office at U of A, which was supposed to sign off, told me they had received the grant but because there was no sticky note on it saying urgent, they didn't take it seriously... I will refrain from articulating my exact response to this, but let us just say it was the straw that broke the camel's back (my back). The good news is that the agency allowed an extra day for things to get sent. The bad news is that my sanity was damaged for a while... In the future I will invest heavily in sticky notes to ensure communication happens. See? Even within the "science machine" communication breaks down! "A sticky note, a sticky note, my kingdom for a sticky note!"
But, I had a great break for 7 days over Xmas, including some skiing and relaxing in Banff with my husband. After catching up on sleep and sanity, it was back on call on the 31st through to the 7th. So much for sleep catch-up; the last three days straight were very busy. The next day we had a huge NSERC funding agency visit, where we had to demonstrate the quality of the Prion Centre and convince them of our need for funding as a national resource. It was a long day, and I drank a lot of coffee, but it went relatively well. We won't know the results for a while though. In the mean time, the push is on to get the containment part of the Centre up and running - which is currently caught up in paperwork delays...
Anyway, I really should write up this neurology clinical skills test station, prepare my year-end PrioNet report (even though it has only been 9 months since funding was given!) and review this article by the end of the week.
Oh - one more piece of good news. I had my year end evaluation with the Chair of Medicine, and it sounds like they are going to keep me - for the time being at least... ;)
Where have I been you ask? Well, after my last entry, we successfully started preparing brain slice cultures, and even imaged some on a confocal microscope. This was really a miracle of circumstance, as a colleague happened to have extra mice pups delivered unexpectedly, which would be sacrificed without purpose unless we needed them. They were to be the appropriate age within a week of my lab tech (who I will call J for the purposes of this blog) starting, and we had nothing set up yet, let alone all the reagents required for the experiment. But, somehow J managed to pull everything together and we were actually slicing by early the following week. Then, it turned out we were having a demo for confocal scopes in our building, so we were actually able to bring our freshly prepared slices and look at them on confocal - all within 1.5 weeks of J starting at the lab! Since then we had fortune to have another batch of mice prior to Xmas and made better cultures on this second round. Unfortunately, the cultures still died, but we think we are using too much media on top of the slices and impairing oxygen diffusion. Soon we should have our own mice so we are less dependent on others for sources.
After a week of call at the end of November, I had some "fun" submitting my PrioNet recruitment grant. There was a lot of last minute confusion regarding who had to sign what, and on the day everything was to be couriered to the agency, the final office at U of A, which was supposed to sign off, told me they had received the grant but because there was no sticky note on it saying urgent, they didn't take it seriously... I will refrain from articulating my exact response to this, but let us just say it was the straw that broke the camel's back (my back). The good news is that the agency allowed an extra day for things to get sent. The bad news is that my sanity was damaged for a while... In the future I will invest heavily in sticky notes to ensure communication happens. See? Even within the "science machine" communication breaks down! "A sticky note, a sticky note, my kingdom for a sticky note!"
But, I had a great break for 7 days over Xmas, including some skiing and relaxing in Banff with my husband. After catching up on sleep and sanity, it was back on call on the 31st through to the 7th. So much for sleep catch-up; the last three days straight were very busy. The next day we had a huge NSERC funding agency visit, where we had to demonstrate the quality of the Prion Centre and convince them of our need for funding as a national resource. It was a long day, and I drank a lot of coffee, but it went relatively well. We won't know the results for a while though. In the mean time, the push is on to get the containment part of the Centre up and running - which is currently caught up in paperwork delays...
Anyway, I really should write up this neurology clinical skills test station, prepare my year-end PrioNet report (even though it has only been 9 months since funding was given!) and review this article by the end of the week.
Oh - one more piece of good news. I had my year end evaluation with the Chair of Medicine, and it sounds like they are going to keep me - for the time being at least... ;)
Monday, November 16, 2009
Nov 16, 2009
Sorry about that – kinda fell off the blogosphere for a bit there. But, I have lots of news!
I gave a really well received talk at a prion meeting in Greece – to students, on how to give a talk (the irony being I threw it together at the last minute). It was so great to fire off the Heritage grant and then lie by the Aegean Sea for a bit. Okay, only for 2 days before the conference, but still, better than nothing. I’ll have to take a real vacation one of these days… I also gave a presentation in Vancouver, to the PrioNet crowd, updating my progress to date. It went very well, but was really mostly show, and not data…
I’ve started curling every week – another great way to break from the stress (and no, I don’t just mean the alcohol component). I’m still playing music with TEMPO (a string chamber group) too – and will be playing a solo with them at our Dec 6th concert, but haven’t made it back to any celtic jam sessions recently. I’ll have to try to resurrect that…
I did some poster judging at summer student research day, which was fun but exhausting. Maybe I’ll have my own summer student next summer – if I can get around to actually reading the CVs I have been sent. As it is, I may also wind up with some high school students for a few months December through April. We’ll see…
I am adding to my committee responsibilities, but so far only ones I think will be fun. I am now on the advisory board for WISEST, and the residency training committee (for Neurology). I think the best committee name so far though, is the one we are developing for the Centre for Prions, to facilitate outside users who wish to use the containment areas. We have named this committee the “Facility Use Committee”… I won’t spell out the acronym for you…
But my biggest news? I’ve finally hired a lab tech – she started today. Yay! And she clearly knows her stuff. Already pieces of equipment are appearing in new locations and we are going to start spending money and doing experiments!
I gave a really well received talk at a prion meeting in Greece – to students, on how to give a talk (the irony being I threw it together at the last minute). It was so great to fire off the Heritage grant and then lie by the Aegean Sea for a bit. Okay, only for 2 days before the conference, but still, better than nothing. I’ll have to take a real vacation one of these days… I also gave a presentation in Vancouver, to the PrioNet crowd, updating my progress to date. It went very well, but was really mostly show, and not data…
I’ve started curling every week – another great way to break from the stress (and no, I don’t just mean the alcohol component). I’m still playing music with TEMPO (a string chamber group) too – and will be playing a solo with them at our Dec 6th concert, but haven’t made it back to any celtic jam sessions recently. I’ll have to try to resurrect that…
I did some poster judging at summer student research day, which was fun but exhausting. Maybe I’ll have my own summer student next summer – if I can get around to actually reading the CVs I have been sent. As it is, I may also wind up with some high school students for a few months December through April. We’ll see…
I am adding to my committee responsibilities, but so far only ones I think will be fun. I am now on the advisory board for WISEST, and the residency training committee (for Neurology). I think the best committee name so far though, is the one we are developing for the Centre for Prions, to facilitate outside users who wish to use the containment areas. We have named this committee the “Facility Use Committee”… I won’t spell out the acronym for you…
But my biggest news? I’ve finally hired a lab tech – she started today. Yay! And she clearly knows her stuff. Already pieces of equipment are appearing in new locations and we are going to start spending money and doing experiments!
Friday, August 28, 2009
Aug 28, 2009
Man, lots happened in these past few weeks. I survived a very manageable week of call, followed by a very well received presentation to WISEST summer students (a bit of inspirational talk about following one’s passions, followed by some music - people always seem to enjoy the trick fiddling).
Then I was really stressing out about:
1) my Heritage grant, finding out I needed to assemble some sort of committee to review it, and reorganizing it all last week after being told my third “aim” was too dependent on the first two,
2) hiring a lab tech – do I hire a good candidate now, or wait for a possibly great candidate later?,
3) the %^&* elevator STILL being out of service, while my fridge, incubator, etc sits in the deliveries dock instead of here in my lab where I could actually use it,
4) figuring out how to image brain slices using confocal microcsopy when the funds I thought would be accessible for a confocal scope are, um, well, not quite available yet…
But, at the peak of my stress, I left work at work last Friday, and Dominik and I drove to Kananaskis for my 10 year med school reunion. It was GREAT. Everyone looked the same, but with a bunch of kids in tow. Who knew our class of 1999 (The Dugongs) was so fertile? I was impressed by how these physicians have managed to find a good balance in their lives. It was inspiring, especially as I was feeling overwhelmed before I went down there. Mind you, I am one of the last ones to get a “real” job and haven’t really settled yet. At least I don’t need to worry about having kids (my biological clock has been in reverse since obs and gyne in med school) – my classmates have seen to it that the next generation is well stocked! Dom and I did begin sponsoring a child in Ecuador though, so that is kinda neat.
Since then I have been taking things in stride. One person can only do so much. So, I am going to enjoy the beautiful weekend ahead (and only review three articles for Monday). After all, it is my last weekend being 34!
Then I was really stressing out about:
1) my Heritage grant, finding out I needed to assemble some sort of committee to review it, and reorganizing it all last week after being told my third “aim” was too dependent on the first two,
2) hiring a lab tech – do I hire a good candidate now, or wait for a possibly great candidate later?,
3) the %^&* elevator STILL being out of service, while my fridge, incubator, etc sits in the deliveries dock instead of here in my lab where I could actually use it,
4) figuring out how to image brain slices using confocal microcsopy when the funds I thought would be accessible for a confocal scope are, um, well, not quite available yet…
But, at the peak of my stress, I left work at work last Friday, and Dominik and I drove to Kananaskis for my 10 year med school reunion. It was GREAT. Everyone looked the same, but with a bunch of kids in tow. Who knew our class of 1999 (The Dugongs) was so fertile? I was impressed by how these physicians have managed to find a good balance in their lives. It was inspiring, especially as I was feeling overwhelmed before I went down there. Mind you, I am one of the last ones to get a “real” job and haven’t really settled yet. At least I don’t need to worry about having kids (my biological clock has been in reverse since obs and gyne in med school) – my classmates have seen to it that the next generation is well stocked! Dom and I did begin sponsoring a child in Ecuador though, so that is kinda neat.
Since then I have been taking things in stride. One person can only do so much. So, I am going to enjoy the beautiful weekend ahead (and only review three articles for Monday). After all, it is my last weekend being 34!
Friday, August 7, 2009
Aug 7, 2009
I managed to work plus get in a hike in the mountains last weekend. Very nice. So, I got my AHFMR grant partially written, enough for the grant editor to have a look at it at least. Now I’m back on call (day 2 and counting), but it has been quite fun so far, and not very busy. I am just covering emerg consults during the day, and two other neurologists are covering ward stuff. Tomorrow I will do the same, plus cover everything after 5pm (or possibly sooner). I hope these two days have not simply been the calm before the storm.
The last time I did call, I presented journal club the morning after. This time I’ll be presenting to WISEST on my day after call. Ah well, I only need to talk about myself and my career path for 15 minutes, for which I don’t need to really practice… My real dilemma, is finding time during the day to contact references for all those candidates I interviewed – at least some of them…
The last time I did call, I presented journal club the morning after. This time I’ll be presenting to WISEST on my day after call. Ah well, I only need to talk about myself and my career path for 15 minutes, for which I don’t need to really practice… My real dilemma, is finding time during the day to contact references for all those candidates I interviewed – at least some of them…
Friday, July 31, 2009
July 31, 2009
Man, what a week! It began last weekend when I did a 100km bike ride – yes, 100km in a row… I borrowed a road bike from my colleague. Healthy body, healthy brain right? Now my sunburned knuckles are healing and I am relieved to find that I am starting to regain sensation in the distribution area of my pudendal nerve…
I learned more about WISEST (Women in Scholarship, Engineering, Science and Technology) here at U of A, and I forgot to mention in my last blog that I had participated in their role model session for grade 11 students last week, which was a lot of fun. I enjoy meeting people at the early stages of their lives and careers, when they are full of hope and opportunities (the pre-pessimistic stage, ah those were the days…).
After clinic on Tuesday (which prompted me to revisit the whole statin myopathy issue), it was off to Vancouver on Wednesday – just in time for their record heat wave. My talk was very well received. Then I hung out in the hotel lobby working on my Heritage Grant before going for drinks with Jay Ingram and then entertaining the boards of directors at dinner by playing my violin (including some trick fiddling of course). Ah, the life of a researcher… You never know when those backup careers will come in handy…
The rest of the week has been filled with interviewing more lab tech candidates, both face to face and by phone. So far, so good (although I found out that some of them have been reading this blog!). Now I need to contact references. I also got more lab goodies – pipettes this time! Unfortunately, the fridge, freezer, CO2 incubator, and biosafety cabinet can’t make it here until our elevator servicing is finished (hopefully mid-August?).
Now it is time for the long weekend! I have decided to compromise the fact that I need to work on my grant but want to go to the mountains. I realize if I stay here and work all weekend, I will be very grumpy next week. So, it’s off to Calgary where I can work a bit, visit family and friends, and also make a day trip to hike in the mountains! It’s all about balance!
I learned more about WISEST (Women in Scholarship, Engineering, Science and Technology) here at U of A, and I forgot to mention in my last blog that I had participated in their role model session for grade 11 students last week, which was a lot of fun. I enjoy meeting people at the early stages of their lives and careers, when they are full of hope and opportunities (the pre-pessimistic stage, ah those were the days…).
After clinic on Tuesday (which prompted me to revisit the whole statin myopathy issue), it was off to Vancouver on Wednesday – just in time for their record heat wave. My talk was very well received. Then I hung out in the hotel lobby working on my Heritage Grant before going for drinks with Jay Ingram and then entertaining the boards of directors at dinner by playing my violin (including some trick fiddling of course). Ah, the life of a researcher… You never know when those backup careers will come in handy…
The rest of the week has been filled with interviewing more lab tech candidates, both face to face and by phone. So far, so good (although I found out that some of them have been reading this blog!). Now I need to contact references. I also got more lab goodies – pipettes this time! Unfortunately, the fridge, freezer, CO2 incubator, and biosafety cabinet can’t make it here until our elevator servicing is finished (hopefully mid-August?).
Now it is time for the long weekend! I have decided to compromise the fact that I need to work on my grant but want to go to the mountains. I realize if I stay here and work all weekend, I will be very grumpy next week. So, it’s off to Calgary where I can work a bit, visit family and friends, and also make a day trip to hike in the mountains! It’s all about balance!
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