Caltech

A Walk Down Memory Lane

Having grown up in Texas, returning after being in California for so long brought back many memories of growing up. Well, maybe not of growing up per se, but just visiting the same places I had always gone to was a nice change of pace to the constant "exploration" that I did while in Pasadena. First stop?

   

Panera! My lovely employer the summer before coming to Caltech. My mom gave me the firm ultimatum that I will do a non-Caltech like job to get some "real world" work experience before I got entangled in academia. And let me say the sweeping, the mopping, the bathroom cleaning wasn't exactly the peachy perfect kind of work experience (I must say, though culturing bacteria got rather dull at times, it was better than that kind of physical labor). But it was still a good life experience... I guess. At least I got to meet many people!!

 

Like...my co-worker Annie!! I remember customers always asking us if we were sisters the way we would greet them at the same time. We would keep each other company while sweeping the floor together and cleaning up after the many toddlers that ran wild in the restaurant. Good memories :)

 

Next on my list? My old high school!! While some of my friends groaned when I mentioned that I planned to visit some of my old high school friends (who are now seniors!) and teachers, I was more than happy to go back. And when I was greeted by the hugs of my once-adoring-underclassman now "intimidating" seniors, I was glad. That and of course all my teachers who all had the same question for me, "It was Stanford or Caltech......." I guess all those California schools all seem the same.

 

And, apparently in my absence, the school decided it was so large (with an enrollment nearly 2.5 times as large as Caltech) that it needed a directory. I laughed a little as my friends pointed it out to me. I mean if a school as small as Caltech needs one, I guess so do high schools! 

 

After my nice stroll on my memory lane, my mom decided to give me a rude awakening of physical exercise. Okay maybe not the typical type of exercise but it's still tiring. Deciding to give me another blast from the past experience, my mom and I decided to make sushi. Not the normal type of raw fish sushi most people think of but I kind of "chopped salad" esque version (made with various types of seafood since my mom's paranoid about me falling ill before I go to Caltech). First step? Make the sushi rice. The crucial aspects? Cutting, not stirring, the rice to mix it and vigorous fanning to rapidly cool it down, man-labor supplied by the children of course.

 

After adding the vinegar and other vegetables, all while still vigorously fanning of course, your sushi rice should become nice and shiny like this!

 

After making the rice we made it into two dishes. One was the sushi and the other was "inarizushi" (which technically is another type of sushi) made by stuffing the rice into pieces of fried tofu. All I remember about making them in the past is how I would always rip the tofu while trying to stuff every last bit of rice into every nook and cranny. So this time my mom decided to stuff them, which was probably for the better.

And as for the sushi, it's hard to tell but what it is is the sushi rice we had made covered with various toppings such as smoked salmon, crab, avocado, cucumbers, fish eggs, fried eggs and seaweed. This type of sushi, called "chirashizushi" or scattered sushi, is basically like sushi but all undone. That is... it has the sushi rice on the bottom and is covered with raw cut up fish (usually tuna) and other traditional toppings (aka no avocados). Pair it with the inarizushi, miso soup, and lots of other side dishes and you have yourself a traditional Japanese dinner.

But now with only a few more weeks until the end of summer, I still have lots of work to do on my SURF final report... wish me luck! Till next time.

When in Texas....

A common question I get from people when they hear I'm from Texas: So Megan... is there really anything to do in Texas? Another common question? Are there really cowboys in Texas? So for some clarifications, no us in Texas do not ride horses to school and no there aren't cowboys (okay maybe some, but no "real" ones as far as I know). So then, that leaves, what is there to do in Texas. Well:

Of course, the first thing to do is spend time with friends! Since I came back so late most of my friends were already gone to college, but I found a couple who were still around since they're colleges are also on the quarter system like Caltech. It was nice to compare colleges (and realize how much Caltech requires of us Techers... and subsequently how much more we learn!) and of course just talk about old friends from high school. And, of course, the food:

 

I was saddened when I came to California to see what a limited amount of "Tex-mex" there was... I guess I should have known better that there would be no Texas-Mexican food in California. So the first place I went with my friends? To a Texmex restaurant of course! Here are some grilled pork and pineapple and cilantro tacos with black beans and rice. Very Texas :) My friends had chicken enchiladas and fish tacos. It was nice to have some good, maybe not very authentic, but very Texas Mexican food for a change (since all I had in California was Asian food....)

 

Another kind of food that's only found in Texas? Texas-style barbecue! We got our usual St. Louis pork ribs (okay so maybe St. Louis is in Missouri but these were Texas styled St. Louis ribs...), extra moist brisket, turkey, and a couple links of sausage. And of course what's bbq is complete without yummy, soft butter crust white bread, pickles, onions, coleslaw and of course lots and lots of bbq sauce!!

 

Something that's more distinctly Austin? Whole Foods! Okay, so yes there are Whole Foods everywhere now, but only in Austin is there the headquarters. And let me say, this Whole Foods is huge! There's always tons of freshly prepared foods from the salad bar to the grill to the sandwiches and everything in between. It reminds me a bit of a larger scale Chandler (the Cafe on Caltech campus that most Techers eat lunch at). 

 

But of course since it's a grocery store, there's always tons of organic fruit and vegetables. There's also plenty of organic beauty products, organic household products (like organic dryer sheets!), and all sorts of other organic products! 

 

And yes, even in Texas, there's dim sum. And yes, of course I went to dim sum the very first weekend I was back home. Though the demographics at the restaurant was very different than those in California, the food was the same and very tasty. At first I was reluctant to go, since no matter how good the Yelp! reviews were I had already overdosed on dim sum in California, and wanted to eat something different. But, I guess in the end, I had to go (I mean, it's not exactly easy to say no to the parents who pay for your tuition......) but I'm glad I did.

Since the prospect of free food apparently far outweighs the nagging of a mother, my brother, a fourth year at UT Austin, decided to straggle along with us (more readily and enthusiastically than I had thought... ). I guess I have to admit that I enjoyed seeing him and spending time with him. Maybe :P

 

But, my favorite thing about coming home? Seeing the love of my life: my cat!! As you can see here, he's a little shy about being photographed (he was actually sleeping... typical). 

♥♥♥

Time to spend more time with my cat!! ...And by that I mean, time to finish my SURF final report that's due in a week. Wish me luck (I'll need it to finish in time haha). Till next time!!

Concerts and Tropical Storms

Before I left California for home I had one last thing left to do: attend SMTown '10. SM Entertainment is one of Korea's largest entertainment company and every year they put on a concert of their most popular artists, called SMTown. But this year wasn't just any other ordinary year. This year was the first year that they had a concert overseas in LA (as well as Tokyo and Shanghai) and I most definitely wasn't going to let this chance slip away!!

 

Welcome to the famous Staples Center!! When my friends and I first arrived we were surprised how empty it was.... granted we had come only one and a half hours early. But thankfully there were tons of pre-concert events going on in the Convention Center right next door. So, we decided to check out the dancing, the T-shirt sales, and other events before heading back over.

 

And... this is what greeted us! This is only one of the four entrances to the Staples Center and trust me, all of them looked this packed. I don't think I've ever seen so much black hair and people my height all in one place haha. It was an experience just trying to get into the Staples Center what with everyone carrying around fan signs and getting hyped up. I just remember being in quite the predicament when the woman in front of us was starting to get upset by all the pushing and snapped at us behind her to stop yet being helpless as the crowd behind us kept on pushing more. Oh, fan girls....

 

But after nearly 45 minutes of waiting and pushing to get in, my friends and I were finally able to get into the Staples Center and find our seats. For $80 (plus all the convenience fees Ticketmaster tacks on) you can get relatively close to the stage, granted this picture makes it seem farther away than it really was in person. I was surprised to see when the concert started that it was all sold out from the very top seats near the ceiling to the floor seats in between the stages. 

 

After four hours of deafening music and even more deafening screams (of both the female and male kind), the concert was over. Here's a picture of all the artists that performed. Though it was painful at times (like when the most popular boy band came out... I don't think I've ever heard such loud, high-pitched screams), it was definitely a fun experience and I hope they'll come again to LA next year!!

But, after a fun night that resulted in temporary hearing loss and a very hoarse throat, it was back to Texas!

 

And what was there to greet me the day after I came back? Tropical storm Hermine that dumped more than a foot of rain in the span of three days. In Texas? Really? When I first looked at the weather forecast, not knowing about the tropical storm, I brushed off the prediction of rain as a weatherman's mistake, but boy was I wrong. Here's a picture of Hermine when it was right over us. I don't think I've ever seen so much rain before. It definitely wasn't the most pleasant welcome-home gift but I guess I can't complain since, much like California, Texas had been in a drought for the past couple of years.....

 

But the stormy weather outside wasn't going to stop me from spending some quality time with my parents making dinner. My first dish? Shrimp, mushroom, and spinach crepes. Here's a picture of the crepes (bought pre-made... we weren't that ambitious) with the sauteed mushroom and shrimp.

 \ 

Next came a dollop of sour cream covered by a generous heap of spinach and topped off with swiss cheese.

 

Roll them up and stick them in the oven for ~15 minutes or so and your crepes are done! Mm... delicious :) 

But now that the rain is finally over, it's time to get out and spend time around Austin... Till next time!!

Last days of SURF(ing)

The last week of my whirlwind SURF experience found me learning many new things and doing many new things in a short period of time. From the packing to the mastering new protocols, I was swamped! I remember feeling rather sheepish when my mentor's listing of all the things he wished to do in one week prompted me to gently remind him that it was my last week, only for him to reply that he knew. I guess I'm glad he had the confidence that I could do so much in such a short amount of time?

The first of many new protocols to learn? The M9 media shift protocol. Though I had been using the fermentor for most of my SURF project to grow cells and express protein, we decided to use a different kind of method that allowed us to incorporate non-natural amino acids into our protein sequence -- something that the professor I did my SURF under is famous for. Thankfully instead of working with 10L of culture, I only had to work with 1L, although the in between steps are much more tedious. After working with the fermentor which is specially built to grow cells super fast, using the conventional method seemed like it took forever for the cells to grow... Let's just say I didn't enjoy the 6 hour waiting period filled with constant checking and adjusting followed by another 4 hour waiting period.

 

But, before I could even start the media shift I first had to prepare the E.coli cells. These cells were already plated by my mentor and incubated. Lovely looking, right? The smell isn't so pleasant either, although it's nothing compared to the smell the fermentor gave off. What I had to do was prepare a small, 5mL overnight culture to use to innoculate the 1L media with (basically we grew a small amount of cells in media first to ensure that they can grow properly then we pour them into the larger flask of media to grow).

But, since we're working with growing bacteria, and let's face it, there's bacteria everywhere, we have to sterilize everything using a flame to ensure only the E.coli gets grown and not some other weird bacteria floating around in the air. My mentor showed me once the "proper" technique for sterilizing the test tube we grow the small culture of E.coli in with much deft and quickness. He and all the other graduate students in the lab are super good at the whole opening a test tube with one hand and sterilizing it without getting burned motion. Me? Not so much. Let's just say I smelled burning latex many times.

 

After successfully growing the cells and expressing the protein I began purifying them using two different methods. One was the method I described in an earlier post that involves cycling the protein through different temperature centrifuge cycles. But, before I did that method I did what's called the Ni-NTA (nickel-nitrotriacetic acid) method of purification which involves using resin beads and a column. To put things simply, when we mix these resin beads with our protein, the protein sticks to them. We can then use different buffers -- solutions with different pH's -- to wash out any impurities and then elute the protein off the resin.

 

After expressing the protein using the new media shirt protocol, my mentor moved onto my next project: cross linking. Cross linking is the process of linking one polymer chain to another to create a sort of gel-like membrane which can be used for growing stem cells on (the ultimate goal of my project.. though that part's being done by researches at the City of Hope, our collaborator for this project.) All that's involved with cross linking is making solutions of the protein and mixing them with appropriate concentrations of a chemical that cross links the protein. We do it in these silicone holes so that when the protein is done cross-linking, the membrane is in a disk shape. Though it sound simple enough, my mentor and I still ran into many complications such as hole size and concentration ratios.

One last thing my mentor wanted to complete before I left was to analyze the rate of aggregation of the protein I expressed this summer. To do that I had to use a plate-reader. Sadly, I wasn't able to get a picture of it (basically it's a computer hooked up to a big looking machine.. not that interesting really). But, to summarize what I did with that... I varied the salt concentrations of different protein solutions, incubated them for a certain amount of time, and then measured them using differing wavelengths to see how much the protein had aggregated.

And with that, I said my good-byes, and my first SURF as a Caltech student was over!

 

And of course before I left, I had to have one last good dim sum! And I actually remembered to take pictures of (some of) the food this time :) I'm sad to say that I won't be having this good of dim sum, if not any dim sum, for a very long time... 

And last but not least? Delicious cake to end the day. This one is a honey cheesecake that's made in a small bakery called Patisserie Chantilly in Lomita (which is about 30-40 minutes away from campus depending on the traffic). It was this cute hole in the wall type of place with all sorts of pastries (so assured my friend) but since we had gotten there just an hour before closing (since we came straight after I was done with my SURF) they only had a handful of desserts left. But, even so, the ones to choose from were all very delicious looking!

But it's now back to home and some home made cooking. Till next time!

An abundance of sugar!

This past weekend I saw another year come and go as I turned another year older. Though most of my friends had already finished SURF and had left, I still had plenty of fun spending it with those still around and pigging out. And also because...

 

Remember how I said one of the Ruddock traditions is to celebrate house member's birthday in our common area? Well, this past Friday, the last day of SURF for most of SURFers, my friends decided to surprise me with an early birthday celebration. I was packing up all my things to move the next day and was actually about to go to lab to stop a gel when one of my friends came knocking at the door, panting and out of breath, and saying that there was something I needed to see. What a surprise I got when I saw everyone standing around this cake:

 

Mm... this cake was chocolate with blueberry cream and lots of chocolate and strawberries on the top. And apparently my friends thought that just one cake wasn't enough because...

 

They bought me a second one. The other one was from a little Japanese bakery called Patisserie Chantilly all the way in Lomita (a good 30 minutes drive from campus). It was a strawberry shortcake with tons of fruit on the top and a chocolaty happy birthday wish stenciled on the top in Japanese. Unfortunately, I was only able to cut myself a slice (my friends insisted) before running off to lab. When I got back, both of them were all eaten up!

 

And last but not least, I got a beautiful bouquet of flowers.They were super bright and cheerful and gave off a very nice smell, which was a bonus since the new room we moved into smelled rather musty and a bit like it hadn't been cleaned or air freshened for awhile what with two guys living in it previously. I'm glad to say that thanks to the flowers, half a can of air freshener and a plug in air freshener, it finally smells nice and clean!

 

And of course my roommate thought that two birthday cakes wasn't enough to satisfy my sweet tooth. She was worried that I wouldn't be able to eat much of my birthday cake (a prediction which came true thanks to lab haha) and so she bought me these three smaller desserts. The one of the left is a strawberry mousse tart, then a matcha (green tea) roll cake, and a chocolate cake. They were the perfect pick-me-ups after a long day of moving in (which also involved them getting jostled in our mini-fridge as my roommate and I were too lazy to take out any of the food from it and just tried to move it as is. And by my roommate and I, I mean three strong guys).

 

But, now fast-forwarding to my real birthday. Missing home and Japan, a couple of friends took me to this one casual Japanese restaurant in San Gabriel (just 5 minutes away from Caltech). While all of them had ramen, I opted instead for curry! But not just any kind of curry. Special Japanese curry with friend pork cutlet and Japanese-style pickles and miso soup on the side. Combine that with milk tea and you get a delicious birthday lunch!!

 

As I was eating, one of my close friends told me that they were treating me to lunch since it was my birthday and so prompted this response. Of course he was joking... I think. Actually I'm pretty sure it was just because he was trying to dodge the camera. After we were all done pigging out on good food and boba, he dished out some extra money for my portion (of course with some playful grumbling and dramatics), only to realize he didn't have enough to pay for his own meal. Oops!!

The perfect way to end the day? Coconut deep-friend ice cream! I had this at a Thai restaurant actually which was quite surprising to me. I didn't know the Thai liked deep-fried ice cream... But anyways, it was delicious! And very fatty feeling :)

But, just one last week of SURF left and still a lot more protein to express and purify. And packing as well! Till next time~~

Moving In and Farewells

Last week was the official end of the SURF program and so many of my friends started packing and saying their goodbyes. Meanwhile, my roommate and I moved into our new fall assignment. Since I left for Japan right after finals week, we decided not to move in the beginning of summer, as most people did, but instead decided to move at the end of SURF. However, I nearly wished we had done so at the beginning of SURF because after waking up super early to go to lab to start a gel, running back and forth to the housing office to check into our new room and get the new combination and then checking out of our old room, and having to wake up my groggy roommate who had spent the night doing who knows what instead of packing, I was exhausted! But, many of my friends, already moved in and packed up, offered us a helping hand and it went much faster than expected!

 

So here's a shot of our newly moved into room.... Trust me, this is nothing compared to how bad it looked when we first moved in. What with the housekeeper trying to clean and vacuum our room and my thousands of boxes piled everywhere and my roommate's thousands of books stacked everywhere and all the random items the previous owner decided to leave behind (namely one dirty sock, a bottle of aloe, and many many coat hangers as well as two pillows and a rather dingy looking towel), there was hardly any space to walk around at first. That and my roommate and I were too exhausted at first from moving everything downstairs to unpack anything. We joked that we should have just kept our room in that state for the whole year. But, of course, after lunch and some resting, we set off on the even more tedious task of unpacking. I took this shot only after I could find my camera, which was after unpacking and organizing at least half of our stuff.

 

Ta-da!! And here's a shot of my desk and living area after organizing everything. So I still have some boxes lying around and some things that I still need to figure out where to put, but it's generally in a much, much better state than how it was before. Much to my roommate's and my chagrin, having spent hours moving around the furniture in a different layout as our previous room, all my friend's first comment when they came over was, "Wow, it looks exactly the same!" Next year we will strive for an even more unique looking set up for certain!

 

Since this weekend was the last one for many of my friends, we decided to go out and eat at a nice, fancy Italian restaurant. This one was conveniently located on Lake street so it was just a 10-15 minute walk away from campus. We, however, took the lazy way out and bribed an upperclassman to drive us to it. But, after getting confused with where exactly it was on Lake, we still ended up walking about 5 minutes to the location. When we finally showed up looking a little disheveled and rather under dressed, we were whisked away to a table, sheepishly looking at the bachelorette parties, fancy get togethers and what not.... But all that was forgotten when the food came out:

 

This here is a pappardelle pasta (think very thick fettuccine) with a mushroom and some kind of game bird (I forgot exactly which one.. quail maybe?) sauce. Super delicious!! But still, being the frugal college kids we are, we decided to opt out of the after dinner tea/coffee and dessert which our server tried so hard to make us order. 

 

But no worries, just because I didn't have any dessert that night, my friends and I certainly made up for it the rest of the weekend. First was the ubiquitous (or at least ever present in my blog) shaved ice. This portion was a small as well (apparently California Asian dessert shops don't know the meaning of "diet-portioned" haha) although it was nowhere as large as Guppy Teahouse's "small" shaved ice. But it was still plenty for four Asian girls.

 

But of course just one night of sweets isn't enough for sugar-loving Asian girls. The next night we went to a Japanese styled cafe (though complete with other Asian food and desserts) and had crepes! They were full of nutella or pastry cream and lots of yummy fruits and topped off with a generous portion of whipped cream. Yummy!!

The cafe, called Genki Living (located in Arcadia, which is only a 5-10 minute drive from campus), was complete with Tokyo city scenes covering the walls, an old-fashioned telephone booth, lots of "park" benches and even a fake tree that had lantern lights. It was super cute and cozy feeling.. the perfect way to spend one last night with friends :)

I ended my busy weekend with a visit to the Huntington Garden. Caltech was giving away free tickets to an outdoor classical concert, so some friends and I decided to take advantage of the offer (as usual) and spent the night at the Huntington which is conveniently only a few blocks away from campus. As you can see, most people brought blankets and towels and enjoyed a picnic on the picturesque lawn before listening to the music which was played from the building behind me. To be honest, since we were pretty far from the building, the music was rather soft but it was still very beautiful. All in all, listening to the music under a full moon and stars (and shivering just a tad because it was very chilly....) was a nice, peaceful way to end the weekend.

Only two more weeks left of SURF and many more results needed... Till next time!!

Déjà vu?

As the seventh busy week of my SURF project came and went, I found myself experiencing a serious case of déjà vu. How so you might ask? By taking a visit to Tokyo! Well, to be precise, Little Tokyo. This past weekend was the 70th annual Nisei Week ("nisei" meaning second-generation in Japanese). So, my friends and I decided to head down to Little Tokyo to check out the festivities and eat some delicious food.

Although, it certainly is a hassle and very difficult to get around places in California without a car, it isn't impossible. Here's a shot of the inside of the metro train. Thought the closest station to Caltech is a mere inch away when looking on Google maps, it does take about 30 minutes or so of walking to reach it. But, once you're there, the metro can take you anywhere from downtown LA to the Pacific coast, and you can even connect at Union Station onto the Amtrack and ride it all the way up to San Francisco.

Little Tokyo is about a 40 minute train ride from the Lake Station where my friends and I hopped on (although it's not too bad considering it's about a 25-35 minute car ride and more if the traffic getting into downtown LA is bad, which it usually is). Famished from our trip, my friends and I decided to take a stop at Daikokuya restaurant, which is famous for their ramen. But, being as famous as it is (with over 1700 review on Yelp and a 4-star rating) my friends and I had to wait a good 40 minutes to eat. However, we were willing to wait only because of the festival. Because when there's a festival, there are tons of booths with yummy food for sale! One example?

This stand selling takoyaki! What is takoyaki you might ask? Well it literally means "grilled octopus". But, to describe it more thoroughly, takoyaki is like a round dumpling with a diced octopus and pickled ginger inside and covered with a special sweet, soy-saucey takoyaki sauce, dried seaweed, Japanese mayonnaise, and green onions. So it might not sound very palatable to the Western tongue, but trust me, they're delicious. And very, very hot! Don't make the mistake some of my friends did and stick the whole ball into your mouth. They told me it was very painful and I'm sure it was very true.

Along with all the food stalls were other stalls selling everything from t-shirts to sunglasses to paintings to every other touristy item you could think of. But, one stood among the rest. This one-man band on the side of the road. It might be a little difficult to tell, but this one man plays the guitar, sings, uses his feet to play the piano-like organ of some sort, has a harmonica and chimes attached to the cart as well as an assortment of other instruments that I either couldn't see or tell what they were. It was definitely an interesting sight to see! 

But, back to the food.... After waiting just under 40 minutes, my friends and I headed back to Daikokuya, our hunger partially satiated from our snacking, but still craving more delicious food. And were we rewarded. Pictured is the Daikokuya ramen special: A miso-based broth containing ramen noodles, a hard-boiled egg, tender grilled pork, and lots of green onions and pickled ginger. Though the ramen was a little rubbery for my taste (my friends teased me about being too snobby about Japanese food), the flavor was delicious! Definitely worth the wait :)

 

After eating, my friend and I decided to check out some more of the booths and stores. But, among the touristy shops, were some more traditional Japanese displays. One being a gallery of flower arrangements. I'm no expert on Japanese flower arrangement so I won't even try to describe their history and purpose other than to say that they sure are unique and very beautiful! 

 

One of my favorite things about being at Caltech in the summer? Having the time to spend time with friends! During the year, while there is always plenty of time to be with friends (read, do problem sets with friends and fall asle... stay awake in class together) it's always difficult to find the time to go places together, if not partly because all of my friends who had a car last year decided to be lazy. But, in the summer, even though SURF takes up most of our times during the weekdays, there's always plenty of time on the weekends to get together and explore more of LA!

 

Another nice thing about the summer is being able to (bake as I mentioned on my last blog) and to be able to cook. While the Caltech dining services provides dinner for on-campus students during the school year, all of us are left to fend for ourselves during the summer. But, instead of begrudging what might be a predicament to some, I embraced this chance to eat healthier and yummier foods. Well, that was the plan at least. While I'll admit that there has been many meals of instant noodles, instant mac, and instant everything else, as well as diet-portioned dinners of peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches and egg, ham and cheese omelets, there are those ambitious days when I try to cook. Like this one! So, while this isn't 100% handmade (the sauce base was already pre-made), I did have to go through the trouble of cutting and cooking the chicken and mushrooms and frying the egg, so I'll give myself the credit of saying that this was a homemade meal :) And it nearly as delicious as any of the pasta dishes as the ones I eat back at home.

 

And of course, the best thing about summer is going to many different dessert places.....

 

Yummy!! 

But, time to lose all those calories!! Till next time :)  

Time to do some reporting.....

These past couple of weeks have been filled with all sorts of reporting from writing an abstract to publish in the CURJ -- the Caltech Undergraduate Research Journal -- to giving a presentation at group meeting as well as writing another progress report.

I know I haven't really described the purpose and goal of my project very in depth so here's (a picture of) my abstract:

 

In short, I'm trying to cure diabetes! Well, sort of. My mentor and I are trying to find a protein that is best for stimulating pancreatic beta cells to produce insulin. The specific type of proteins we're trying to use for this purpose are called artificial extracellular matrix proteins -- or AECM proteins. Naturally found ECM proteins include elastin, collagen, and laminin, so we're basically trying to cross-link these matrices to create artificial ones. I would explain my project more in depth if it wasn't out of respect for my mentor. Since he recently had another project of his "scooped", i.e. some other lab "stole" the idea and published on it, he's been very paranoid recently about me talking too much about it. I guess that is one down side to the world of academia, but I understand his sentiments. I mean if the project I was working on for a year had been stolen I would be pretty upset as well!! But, moving on..

As interesting as it may (or may not......) sound, the work I do is actually pretty tedious. As I described before, my job consists of making a ton of E.Coli cells in a fermentor, lysing them, and then purifying the protein out of them using alternating cold and hot centrifuge cycles. Once I purify out the protein we then send it to our collaborator, so I miss out on all the legit work. But, it's still a good experience and I am learning a lot of different techniques! Everyone in my lab assures me about how useful it is for me to know how to use a fermentor because not many people do. I can understand with how cumbersome it is to use and the absolutely pleasant smell it gives off!

Another thing I had to do recently? A powerpoint presentation for group meeting. Here's a slide from it so you can see some of the progress I've been making these past seven weeks:

Look!! It's more... gels! But this time, very successful gels if I do say so myself. I was super nervous for this presentation so I woke up an hour early to rehearse. Thankfully everyone in my lab is very supportive and didn't ask too many difficult questions as I was worried they might (well, everyone except my professor, but I guess that was expected). He had many questions about the yield of my protein, the types of protein I'm seeing better expression with, etc. I felt bad that I couldn't answer all of them and had to rely on my mentor for help with some of the questions, but I felt better when some of the other SURF students who presented after me had to do the same.

 

Here's another slide that details the fermentation process and the LCST (lower critical solution temperature) nature of the AECM proteins I am trying to purify. 

Since I started SURF late, I still have three more weeks to better improve my protein yield (my mentor and I have started looking into alternative methods of purification) and are purify even differently cross-linked proteins. Hopefully I'll some good results for my final report!!

And of course, no blog post is complete without some pictures of food! So, without further ado...

More dimsum :) So this past weekend, I went with another group of friends to dimsum. And this time I didn't forget to take a picture of the food before we consumed it all. This time I really pigged out. Since many of the friends I went with can speak Cantonese (instead of Mandarin like the other friends I went with) we had a much easier ordering dishes as most of the servers speak Cantonese. But, despite pigging out even more, I still only had to spend a thrifty $8! 

Ahh, white chocolate macadamia cookies. My favorite!! So, I actually baked these cookies from scratch (not from pre-made cookie dough thank you very much!) a while ago, but since I still have some left I thought I would share a picture with you guys. 

Although I am very busy researching, it's still nothing compared to the time management skills you need during the school year (what with having to go to classes and having many problems sets to do along with extracurricular activities). A nice thing about staying at Caltech for the summer is that you still have all the amenities that Caltech has to offer but you actually have time to take full advantage of them. I love baking, but I was always too tired (or lazy) during the school year to actually bake. But, now that I had time this summer, I decided to bake a batch. I had to secretly stash them away before all my friends gobbled them up.. but maybe I should have let them take more because it's taking me a long to finish them all by myself haha. I guess my eyes were larger than my stomach...

Sorry this post was rather short.. But, I have a lot of fun activities planned for this weekend including a visit to Little Tokyo for Nisei week and baking of more yummy desserts! Look forward to next time.. I know I am :) Til next time!!

Hitting the Waves!!

Figuratively of course. Well for me at least. This past weekend, the SURF program sponsored a trip to Santa Monica beach, so of course my friends and I, being the car-less and poor students that we are (or believe we are), decided to take full advantage of this opportunity. The morning before I went however, I checked the forecast which reported a rather gloomy high of 65 degrees. Seeing this, I decided not to wear my swim suit (I mean, if the weather was 65 degrees think about how cold the water would be!!)

 

And at first, was I glad to have brought my jacket! When we first arrived at the beach around 11am, it was still very chilly and very gloomy looking. Some of my friends decided to brave the waters, only to come shivering back just a couple of minutes later. Well, all except for the one from Alaska, who marveled that the water was the "perfect temperature for swimming".

So instead, we decided to check out the pier near by. Santa Monica pier isn't your usual fisherman's pier, although there were many people fishing from it. Instead, it's filled with restaurants, a mini amusement park complete with a Ferris wheel and carnival games, and of course the usual souvenir shops as well as many street performers.

 

Here's another view of the pier from the Ferris wheel. It wasn't huge but it was just the right size to stroll through casually and have fun while waiting for the weather to warm up.

 

Nearby the beach, just a couple of blocks or so, was a huge outdoor shopping mall where my friends and I decided to check out and eat lunch at. While most of my guy friends decided to go straight back to the beach after eating lunch, my girl friends and I (and one guy friend) decided to look at some of shops. Funnily, none of us bought anything except for my guy friend who decided to buy two new outfits.... We certainly teased him appropriately for his girly excitement about buying new clothes.

 

By the time we finished up shopping, it was the perfect temperature for going to the beach! It was definitely way above 65 degrees.... Of course the weatherman would lie. But swimsuit-less as I was, I just decided to lounge around on the beach, burying people in sand and making sand castles as my friends decided to try swimming.

 

And what day at the beach would be complete without any jumping pictures? This one took at least five tries before we got all three of us in the air... but I'll blame completely on our cameraman :)

The next day, my friends decided to pig out (yes once again) by going to an all-you-can-eat Korean bbq restaurant. At only $10 per person ($12 with tax and tip) it was perfect for the starving college student. And not only is there unlimited meat, Korean barbecue is also known for serving plenty of side dishes like kimchi (a kind of spicy, pickled vegetables), seasoned bean sprouts, salad, etc for the purpose of....

Making a delicious wrap of seasoned meat, salad, other such side dishes, and spicy sauce all wrapped up in a sheet of rice paper. And of course eating an unlimited portion of meat wasn't enough for my starving friends. We decided to pig out even more by....

 

Eating shaved ice and boba afterwards (with the excuse to get the smell off of our clothes)! Can you believe that this is actually the small serving? My friends and I were, since there was eight of us,  debating about getting the large size, worried that there wouldn't be enough for all of us. However, were we glad that we got the small size when this monstrosity came out. And to top it off, since one of my friends actually new two of the waitresses at the cafe, we got free ice cream and condensed milk as well. Let's just say, none of us went back hungry that day.

But, it's time to digest all of that good food and get back to working seriously: Next week is my presentation at group meeting. Wish me luck!! Till next time~

Lazy Summer Days

At the end of last week I was exhausted from ten hour work days, working on weekends, and standing outside all day at amusement parks! So, I decided to take it easy this past weekend, opting out of going to yet another amusement park with my roommate (this time, she and some friends from Lloyd house went to Disneyland). After sleeping in on Saturday, I instead went with some friends to dim sum.

What is dim sum you might ask? To put it loosely, it's like Chinese-styled brunch. Most Chinese restaurants start serving dim sum in the late morning (around 10 to 11 am)  until the early afternoon (around 2 to 3 pm), although some restaurants will serve dim sum for the whole day.

 

A defining characteristic of dim sum is that all the food is usually pushed around in these carts. The servers wheel around the carts to the different tables, shouting out what kind of food it contains, and the diners can then pick out the dishes they want from each cart. Each dish is usually fairly cheap, between $1-$3, though it varies from restaurant to restaurant.

 

I was actually too busy eating to take any pictures of the food, so here's one from Google. As you can see, each dish contains about three to four servings so it's always best to go in a large group if you want to eat an assortment of dishes. Another nice thing about dim sum is that between the time it takes to get all the food and eat it, there's always plenty of time to catch up with friends. At only $6-$8 per person, dim sum is a great way to get a cheap, satisfying (and very delicious) meal (or two) while spending time with friends...great for the busy Caltech student!

Skipping ahead to Sunday now...

This time opting out of going shopping with my friends in Old Pasadena (after all I did plenty of that in Japan), I instead went around with a friend on a food tour of LA. And mind you, this wasn't just any friend I went around with; it was a friend who had a car. Even though public transportation is much better than what I'm used to (coming from Texas), it still isn't a very convenient way to get around the city, so it's always nice to have a friend who has a car and is from the area.

Our first stop? Philippe's! Known for being the self-proclaimed inventors of the french dipped sandwich, Philippe's has been around LA since 1908. Even at a little past 1pm, the store was packed! But thankfully, the service was good and with six different lines going, we didn't have to wait long to get our food. I had never eaten a french dipped sandwich until then but it definitely won't be my last for certain!

 

Next stop, Diddy Riese in the Westwood area. With over 1500 review on Yelp!, my friend and I just had to come here, even if it was a long drive. When we got there, the line was extending out of the shop.. and for a good reason. Diddy Riese is famous for their...

 

Ice cream sandwiches! At only $1.50, you get to choose the two different cookies you want (I got cinnamon-sugar and chocolate white chocolate) and the type of ice cream (mine was cookies and cream and my friend's was cookie dough) in between them.

 

Mm.. delicious!!

 

To end the day on a more peaceful note (and to burn off all the calories we just consumed), my friend and I headed back towards Caltech and decided to stroll through the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanical Garden located in Arcadia.

 

Being a botanical garden, they're known for their beautiful flowers as you might expect. But, something else they're famous for which you might not expect is their...

 

Peacocks! There was literally tons of them just roaming around the complex, both males and females and little peacock chicks. Apparently, they even "migrate" (or just roam) all the way to Caltech. My friend, an upperclassman, recounted how they had to herd all of the peacocks last year into a courtyard to be taken back to the arboretum.

And so, after this nice relaxing weekend, I began the work week energized and ready to purify more proteins. Till next time :)