Tomas Ganz' Lab

Hello Everyone,

Hope your summer experiences are going well! Where to start with mine. Well, this is my first real professional research lab position, and I am working under a 2nd year Ph.D. student-Emilio Ramos, in the Defense Lab (Tomas Ganz) in CHS corridor 5-2 at UCLA. The lab is centered around iron and its metabolism. Lost for words, but, man it feels like I'm part of something big. the PI is incredibly intelligent, incredibly successful, but really approachable. Always busy, however, as he's starting a business. His right-hand, Ella, is also really neat. I want to say more, but hey, this is just about us, eh? My mentor, Emilio, it is almost scary how similar we are. Both lefties, both dad's drive trucks, both first gen. collegiates, both into the same kinds of music, etc., etc. What's more, he looks like an older, darker version of my brother. I really need to post pictures, hehe. I've talked with peers in the summer programs, and many have mentors that are older. I feel kinda lucky to have a younger mentor, as we quickly built a great rapport, and it's not difficult to ask a question. On to the research aspect. It's kinda weird, this "cutting-edge" research, because no one has the answer. I never realized how little we actually know, but at the same time, it's not that hard to ask the "next question," since as we experiment, we're already asking it, hehe! Personally, I'm working with my mentor to elucidate the molecular mechanism of regulation of the hepcidin hormone - which regulates iron levels in the body. The major disease we're concerned with is hereditary hemochromatosisI won't go into too much detail, but we all know about iron and rust...imagine it in your liver, pancreas, bones, joints, and brain! I never really thought about it, but iron overload is pretty bad, haha! Insofar, we're testing in vivo hepcidin expression levels in response to different diets (in mice). We're soon moving on to in vitro cell lines with different gene mutations, etc. I actually understand what's going on, haha! Workin' 6 hours straight in a microbiology lab is friggin' exhausting though! I'm tired every day. Nevertheless, I know this is for me :O) Richard A Rodriguez (RAR)

Dr. Watson's Pink House!

Never in my life did I imagine seeing Dr. Watson!  He is often seen driving around in his Jag.

-Erin Jimenez

CSHL

Later, I will post a photo of Dr. Watson's pink house.

Erin Jimenez and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

I am participating in an undergraduate research program in the Watson School of Biological Sciences at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Under the guidance of Dr. Robyn Johnston in Dr. Dave Jackson's Lab, I will be studying the mechanisms that determine phyllotaxy in abphyl1 and abphyl2, maize mutants. In addition, I will further define the position of the abphyl2 gene by positional cloning. My project is very different compared to what I study in The Koehler Lab at UCLA. However,the challenge of learning something new and mastering more techniques excites me. 

CSHL is beautiful! I have never been anywhere as serene and natural as CSHL. The people are amiable and the students in the program are making my experience memorable. I recently submitted an abstract about my research and presented a formal talk to my peers. I am having an awesome time at CSHL!

Thank you MARC!

Erin A. Jimenez

New York, New York

I am conducting research at Rockefeller University through the HHMI EXROP and am associated with their SURF program. The name of the PI and my lab mentor are Dr. Cori Bargmann and Dr. Dirk Albrecht. We are housed in no clear department that I know (I think there are no departments at rockefeller). I arrived in the city June 13 and my thoughts thus far are quite varied. 

The first thing I noticed when I got here were that people were a bit more aggressive. Something about their mannerisms and the way they speak is just more confrontational. I suppose it is understandable considering that take risks every day crossing the street. Since I have gotten here I have sadly not yet interacted with any undergraduates. Since I started late I haven't met any of the people in my program and have mainly spoken to people in my lab, mainly my PI and lab mentor. The main reason I probably haven't interacted with anyone is I am housed in a single room in the upper east side of manhattan called the 92st Y. 

That said the buildings the food and my lab are great. I have been just amazed by the wonderful architecture and I have a great view from my apartment building. I have also had the occasion to roam the streets of new york and try various eateries. As for my lab it seems to be an interesting problem. Although it is on something completely different than I am used to it is really nice to try and address another behavioral issue. Rockefeller itself is also quite nice in that it is extremely well funded and absolutely beautiful. 

My hope is tomorrow I will get the chance to meet some people in my program and figure something to do other than walk around and eat. 

-Ryan Dosumu-Johnson

Beginning Research

I’m conducting research for the REU summer research program for 2008. The name of my lab mentors are Dr. Jorge Ortiz and Debora Figueroa . We are housed in the El Verde Field Station in Puerto Rico. The project I’m working on involves evaluating the quality of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in two tropical streams that receive water waste treatment plant (WWTP) effluent. We are trying to see how the quality of the carbon changes after the addition of effluent so that we can determine the effects of urbanization on the trophic structure of the river systems. I arrived in the city on June 6th, at 5:00 pm. My first impression of the city was that it was hot and humid, and the people spoke very much like Cubans, which made me feel at home. All the other students in the program are from all over the U.S. and from Puerto Rico. They are very nice, cool people and we are becoming fast friends. I begin my field research on monday (the 16th) and I'm very excited! -- Maylen Perez