Warning: Rant ahead

I'm annoyed. Seems like my cell cultures got infested with bacteria. Again. It has to be the new media that I made up - I didn't realise I was meant to filter sterilise the serum before adding it to the media. Obvious, really, if you think about it. But well, I guess I didn't. What really got to me is that after the first bacterial assault on my poor defenseless cells, I incubated some of the media overnight with LB, and it was still clear the next day. I figured it was just me having done something stupid, e.g. sneeze on my cells, and it was safe to use the aforementioned (and henceforth damned) bottle of media - big mistake.. (oh, and on a random tangent, apparently it's possible to give your cells a yeast infection just by breathing on them after a night out drinking). Man.. as if I'm not already behind schedule with this project. Just hope I'll have something to show at the end of this.

So much for the best laid schemes of mice and men.

A month later

I can't believe it's been a month - 8 weeks seemed so much longer then. And just when I've started to get my bearings too.. Ok, down to business. As it was advertised, this project relates to "the molecular basis for learning and memory". More specifically we're looking at an A Kinase Anchoring Protein (AKAP2) that may be important in neuronal signalling, as explained below:

"The enhancement of neurotransmitter release from synapses in the brain by protein kinase A (PKA) is an important regulatory mechanism that is involved in learning. The project will test the hypothesis that the targeting and not just the catalytic activity of PKA is important for regulating neurotransmitter release. Plasmids designed to silence the expression of a synaptic PKA anchoring protein (AKAP2) will be constructed and then validated in heterologous cells. The plasmids will then be introduced into cultured neurons to assess the role of PKA anchoring in living synapses."

Simple enough concept, huh? Knock down AKAP2 with siRNA, then see if it affects neurotransmitter release. It's only in this last week where I've gotten preliminary (and fortunately encouraging) results. There's still much to be done though! I'll try to keep this site more updated than it is now..

In case you were wondering, yes, things are still going wrong, and odd results pop up every now and then. Still making mistakes, still learning, still enjoying myself.