Warning: Nerd Post

Well I'm going to talk about biology because that's all I've had time to do for the past few weeks.  Honestly, I'm kind of obsessed with my job. I just really love learning and doing research. Yesterday, I had my first lab meeting where I presented the research I've done for the past two months. It was fun sharing my work with other people and getting some feedback.

For a super super quick overview of my research, basically I'm looking at a protein which is found only in the brain. Although the function is unknown currently, it seems to have a role in mental diseases (especially schizophrenia) and in cancer.

There are two similar proteins which are found throughout the body that are known to do RNA editing.  So what that means is you have DNA in your cells then they translate it into RNA and then its transcribed into proteins which make up the cell structure and mitochondria and do all the other things that cells do to keep you alive.  RNA editing means that during this RNA stage these proteins can change the sequence which may affect the protein it transcribes.

My research is finding out whether my protein does the same thing in the brain, and if not what is its function. I'm using human glioblastoma cells lines (which means that cells were taken from a brain tumor and cultured.) I'm going to take out the protein's gene from these cells (I won't go into detail but there is a way for me to do this and it involves retroviruses) and see whether it affects editing.

I had another presentation yesterday on piRNAs which are another type of RNA (there are sooo many kinds.) I think I'm getting to the point where I'm a little obsessed with my work. I just love trying to figure out things that no one has ever done before. I love being a detective and trying to find clue from previous studies that might give me insight into my questions. And I just like learning about biology in general.