Dear Bacteria: A Lab Monologue
Inspiration: In the initial days of my Ph.D., I worked with Plasmepsins, the pathogenic proteases from Plasmodium falciparum, a parasite known to cause the most fatal form of human malaria. To produce the soluble and correctly folded protein, I specifically used an E. coli strain named Rosetta-gami B (DE3)pLysS cells, it requires a relatively longer duration to grow and express the protein of interest. Working with these bacteria was a tricky job due to the often growth discrepancy during culturing.
Hide and seek: A play with Protein
Inspiration: It’s challenging to work with a protein family (I worked with proteins named Plasmepsins from Plasmodium falciparum), which were difficult to express in the recombinant soluble forms. The love of the lab is the protein of our interest! Isn’t it?:p
Protein crystals or Gems
Inspiration: Everything is a destiny! Hahaa, this phrase is well applicable to crystallographers because crystal formation is a combination of art, science, and luck! To increase the chance of formation of a good-quality crystal, there are several things to be taken into consideration, such as the quality of your protein of interest, the concentration of your protein and the mother liquor (chemicals to allow supersaturation), the composition of mother liquor, buffer, pH, temperature, vibration, and a lot more! Crystals are beautiful, and a good-quality crystal stores a wealth of information that can be extracted to deduce the three-dimensional structure of the concerned macromolecule.
Mysterious and Mischievous: The Secret Life of the Microbiome
Little but loud! Omnipresent! Buddies or Bullies or both? Microbiome influences our lives like nobody else- they are on a secret mission to rule us! Sounds scary, right? Huge scientific efforts are pouring in to unveil the diverse roles played by these tiny fellows.
PhD: Loosing or Growing Sanity
Every PhD journey is different, but some experiences bring us all together. It’s a path full of struggles, failures, rejections, and doubts; but also moments of excitement, curiosity, and success.
During my PhD, I spent years studying #malaria parasite proteins called plasmepsins, and at that time I must have thought the topic deserved a poem besides research papers.
Some things in research don’t change. For everyone who has spent years watching an FPLC run.
