Rachel gave a fabulous presentation on a paper about Alas2-null erythroblasts, which was a great paper to read to learn more about the role of the alas2 gene in erythroid cell development.

All of us have been in and out of the lab working hard to try and solidify our protocols and continue our training. Gwen has been working on prepping embryos and running Western blots, Jason has continued working on microinjecting the embryos with actual morpholino, and Rachel has been making progress on getting her PCR protocol set.

I have been mounting a ton of samples so I can practice getting their positioning just right on the slide. One of my attempts is imaged below.

For now, I have been perfecting putting the cover slips on the slides without moving the samples around in the process. I also was recently trained to use the confocal microscope, which is super cool and exciting! Hopefully, I’ll be able to mount more slides to practice imaging with the confocal. In addition to that, I hope to start microinjecting with real morpholino next week. I have practiced loading a bunch of needles, so hopefully I’ll be able to successfully inject some of the embryos when I give it a try!

There have been a few small bumps in the road for all of us this week, but we are all in high spirits, and we know that we (toxi)can’t give up!