Matt Erman #5- Finally Got Data!

Hi Everyone! I know it has been about a month since I last posted to the blog, but that was because I was awaiting data from the experiment that I was working on. Guess what? I just got the data from the experiment I was working on this summer. Just to remind you about my experiment, I was screening a specific gene in yeast cells, checking to see how yeast cells with different deleted genes were affected by a wide range of genes, all of which are related to the C9orf72 gene, which is a gene that is being studied to see its effect on the progression of ALS in people. Thanks to the screen, we were able to find multiple genes (24 in all) that caused yeast cell death, with many of the genes causing different reactions in the cells to cause the cell death. 

During my last week at the lab, I was really happy that I had the opportunity to see the person I was working with, Matt, have his thesis defense. It was really cool to see how much work he has put in over the years to earn his PhD. I think the best part of his presentation was how he talked about how his research evolved over the years, in that how much more in-depth his interest and research became as the years past. It was cool to me how his interest in the subject developed, from something that he was kind-of interested in, to something he wanted to spend the rest of his life studying. What made this cool to me was that if his interest in the topic blossomed into a desire to find out as much information as possible about ALS, I can only imagine what my future could be, whether my interest can turn into a PhD like Matt's did. 

All in all, I am so happy that I had the opportunity to work out in California. It taught me how to survive on my own, to work in a lab, and showed me how what research is really like. I was so lucky to end up in such a great lab with such great people, and was able to work on something that really interested me with ALS and neurodegenerative disease. I want to thank all of the people in my lab for being so helpful, nice, and just good people to be around. Thanks also to Dr. Peretz and Dr. Crider for giving me the opportunity to have this great experience this summer. Last of all, I would like to thank all of the other EXPer's (if that's a thing) for writing about what they have been doing this summer too and giving me something good to read throughout the summer. See you all soon!