Pretty Pictures

The wonders of using a Leica Inverted Fluorescence Microscope.. DIC-DAPI filter merge image

Weekends a the lab

One of the perks about weekends at the lab is no one is queing up to use any equipment, no one will bother you, you can do heaps of experiments.. and.. you can play with dry ice with your supervisor.. Amongst a few completed experiments, I've also achieved the "Entrance of the Greek God" effect for Tom.. which is supposedly for him to appear at important meetings.. Fun :)

Somebody give me a holiday,

I am suffering from Severe Induced Academic Neuropsychosis (SIAN)..

There Can Be Miracles....

.... When you believe...

Its strange how thoughts can persitently deny a fatigued mind of sleep- despite a soft fluffy quilt and a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon gulped in 1 breath.. caught in a kind of limbo-quagmire situation and I asked for a sleep.. and a sign.. and it was given... the serendipity of a simple mention over dinner conversation... setting up a catalytic reaction of phone calls- and my prayers are answered... it is incredibly relieving and uplifting.. Thank and praise God..

Don't worry (esp. to the kay-poh people).. the situation isn't pertaining to girls or BGR..

Publication Worthy

Blister

Completed my run today and just as I took a step onto the cold kitchen floor, I felt a sharp sting on my foot. I lifted it up to see that the raw skin from a blister was bleeding thru.. nevermind, I rewarded myself with a piece of sherry marinated steak which I wolfed down heartily.

Checked out the Protein:Carbohydrate:Fat calculator at www.aussiebodies.com.au for advice on how to work out smarter. Spoke to the GNC nutritionist last week for advice (on the pretext of looking for protein shakes- which i am not a believer in; just a conversation starter to get free advice..) I gave a brief description of my predicament- my main goal is to reduce body fat in order to increase strength to weight ratio and enhanced running performance (simple physics: lighter you are, easier it is to run further and faster).. and it doesn't seem to be working at all despite reduced food intake and increased exercise- the only day when I didnt do any form of exercise was friday. The response that I got was logical- not eating well enough- I'm wearing my body out without providing enough nutrient- especially proteins to repair the muscle. Lesser muscle= lesser fat burning capability (since muscle burns fat.. well lean muscle..). When the body is starving, it will eat into its own source of protein for energy- that is muscle. This means I'm effectively eating myself alive. EUREKA! thanks and no thanks for the protein powder. Men's Health states that drinking Skim milk is just as good as taking such stuff- and ounce to ounce of protein, Skim milk is 20-30 times cheaper. Switching from 3 main meals to 6 small meals is really tough- though friday dinner and sunday lunch I give myself a break and allow rice for those meals. Anyway.. www.aussiebodies.com.au is really great help- planning exercise, weekly diet.. working hard is important too.. so is working smart.. exercise and healthy diet must come hand in hand.

Anyway..

Feeling a mixed feeling of disheart'nment laced with mild dissent... It sounds wierd- but I do really long to hear encouraging words spoken to me; this week has been with alot of negativity- getting told off about my flight ticket, contaminating pipettes with radiation.. etc.. it isn't a great detriment.. but sometimes when the source comes from parents, out of respect, you can't just mentally type '/ignore'. In tying times, the last thing you need is nagging. A simple "you can do it" or "you're doing a great job" would actually suffice..

Over breakfast I was reading thru an old edition of Men's Health (Sg Edition) an there was an interview with a commando officer. In a parachute jump overseas, his parachute tangled and he managed to untangle it and had almost crashed into the ground- he crashed into a tree instead. Despite suffering concussion to the head and shin injury, he carried on his mission.

"As a mission commander, my primary focus was on my mission. There will always be distractions in your life, so you got to work around them, no matter how bad they are"

It made sense.. maybe all these things are distractions. My mission is to live the love for science and ace it- its not about the H1, its about being the very best that I can be. I would have crashed into many trees.. maybe even crashed into the whole amazon forest.. but I must still carry out my mission and accomplish it. Negative things from others I have to shut out and fill my mind with the positive.. as well as surround myself with positive people. These words enlighten me to what I should do.

I hope with whatever I'm doing, my parents are at least an ounce proud of me and are consoled that their investment and funding me have reaped benfits.

Presentation

The Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences 3rd Annual Postgraduate Research Symposium - Wednesday 1st October, 2008 –
Day Schedule

10:15am
Associate Professor David Taylor to introduce student presentations

10:15am
Phillip Bergen, PhD candidate, Pharmacy Practice
Pharmacokinetic (PK)/Pharmacodynamic (PD) Investigation of Colistin (C) against Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Pa) using an in vitro Model

10:30am
Sarah Ellis, PhD candidate, Pathology, Peter MacCallum
The role of the vasculature in the hemopoietic stem cell niche

10:45 – 11:10am Morning Tea
Venue: Cossar Hall

11.10am
Greg Weeks, PhD candidate, Pharmacy Practice

11:25am
Admire Dube, PhD candidate, Pharmaceutics, Drug Delivery.
Bioadhesive polymeric nanoparticle delivery systems for mucosal delivery of catechin antioxidants

11:40am
Gemma Ferguson, PhD candidate, Medicinal Chemistry

11:55am
Nimali Withana, PhD candidate, Pathology, Peter MacCallum
Contribution of tumour and stromal cysteine cathepsins to breast cancer metastasis

12:10pm
Hollie Pegram, PhD candidate, Pathology, Peter MacCallum
Gene Modified Natural Killer Cells for Cancer Immunotherapy

12:25pm –1:45pm Poster session / and lunch Venue: Cossar Hall

Afternoon Session Venue: Lecture Theatre 1

1:45pm
Welcome and introduction of 2nd plenary speaker by Associate Professor David Taylor,

Associate Dean of Research Training
1:50pm
Professor Peter Colman (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute ‘Relenza Revisited')

2:20pm
Associate Professor David Taylor to introduce student presentations

2:20pm
Vijay Urmaliya, PhD candidate, Pharmaceutical Biology
Cardioprotection via adenosine A1 receptor agonists in a cardiac cell ischemia model involves a cooperative effect of endogenous adenosine via adenosine A2A and A2B receptors

2:35pm
Kenneth Chin, Honours candidate, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Peter MacCallum
Seek and Destroy: DNA-targeted Auger Radiotherapy

2:50pm
Shanna Tam, PhD candidate, Medicine, St. Vincent’s Hospital
Osteoclast formation and osteolysis are promoted by the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activator aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide ribonucleoside (AICAR) in vivo

3:05pm – 3:15pm Afternoon Break

3:15pm
Adliah Mhd Ali, PhD candidate, Pharmacy Practice
Development and Validation of Competency Standards for Prescribing by Pharmacists
in Australia

3:30pm
Rachel Carter, PhD candidate, Pathology, Peter MacCallum
Regulation of Metastasis to Bone by β3 integrin

3:45pm
Jo-Anne Pinson, PhD candidate, Medicinal Chemistry
PI3-Kinase and inhibitors: Thiazolidinediones for targeting isoform selectivity

4:00pm
Christian Nefzger - Department of Pharmaceutical Biology

4:10pm - 5:15pm Final brief poster session, refreshments served
Venue: Cossar Hall Presentations of prizes
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm the most junior amongst all of them.. a young buck in the game.. the only honours student amongst PhD students giving a presentation.. strangely, I feel a sense of happiness surrounding the daunting task in the presence of senior, experienced scientists- I'll be presenting my work amongst friends.. and the majority of them from the PeterMac I know.. one at St Vincent's I am guilty of kicking the ball into her face at Inter-dept. soccer. Thank God for this priviledge and I will put in my best efforts and make my presentation worthy to be presented amongst PhD students. Well.. back to work, and into the fight..

Treadmill..

Dammit all the treadmills in College Square are down... DAMMIT... this can't be happening.. Oh well.. Interdepartment Soccer tomorrow.. MACrophages vs. St. Vincents Hospital team... something to look forward to..

Smashing!

Its 2348hrs AEST now and I think ok to say we're safe- almost 7hrs after the first protons were smashed in the new Large Hadron Collider.. the threat of creating a black hole and destroying the earth was just another bit of science fiction.. its amazing that people would invest so much in such a collosal device to collide something so minute.. amazing because the benefits can't be seen outright- its not like a cure for cancer kinda thing.. yet people still invest in it. Amazing because people haven't developed such technology into weapons.. or at least we hope so..

Its not hard to imagine accelerating heavy particles with supermagnets and smashing them into humans instead of other smaller partices. Human techology has made another great leap forward.. our ancestors started off by manipulating physical environment in order to survive.. in recent light we were able to manipulate our very own human genes.. today, the success of the Large Hadron Collider will very soon enable us to understand and manipulate every subatomic particle.

At the same time.. its scary to think back, remembering that the field of nuclear physics greatly advanced with the introduction of nuclear warfare during the Second World War and the subsequent Cold War.. lets pray that history doesn't repeat itself..

Timoro

.. in Greek, it means 'Punishment or Discipline'... thats what I decided to do on the treadmill today in preparation for participating in the full marathon.. 15km in 1:25:00... it isn't anything commendable compared to Sharman's 30km runs.. infact I do aspire to her standard of discipline..

Felt the dehydration setting in and my lips went numb.. but i just wouldnt give up.. my father's words rang in my head- "you'd better be careful you know, people can collapse in marathons..", well I'd better get cracking and make sure my training prevents me from collapsing.. thoughts of Candice's 22nd birthday party in a conversation with her over-zealous army fanatic brother who is currently studying a Masters in Counter-Terrorism in Monash " you will learn phrases like 'Pain is temporary, pride/glory is forever' " only to hear in my mind "pride and glory? rubbish- you'd better thank God you're actually still alive breathing.." ..so why continue running? Because it keeps me focused and disciplined mentally.. because everyday I get stronger.. I can't take it being stagnant and sitting on my ass- and I've gotta put in the hard work to make the difference..

Anyway I've rewarded myself by returning home to 2 sherry marinated lean pork loins garnished with alittle greek seasoning and 2 glasses of low fat milk- calcium for the bones and protein to repair worn out muscle.. the last bit is now.. sleep to rest the tired mind.