First Thing's First, I'm a Chemist

I'm happy to say that I arrived in Utah in one piece! Unfortunately, my brain didn't like waking up at 4 am, and I consequently forgot to pack my laptop charger. I knew I'd forget something, and I'd like to thank my parents for shipping my charger to me.

On another note, yesterday I was introduced to the lab that I'll be working in, and,despite running on three to four hours of sleep, I managed to remember most of the equipment names. I'm particularly fascinated by the pH meters, of which there are four. Sadly, three of the meters are broken. On the other hand, three of the meters are broken. This means that I can practice using these pH meters without too much stress, especially since the bulb on the end of the meters is extremely fragile and thin (in the order of nanometers). I'm excited to begin working in a lab with actual equipment, since I didn't get a chance to do many experiments in high school.

Here's the counter-top that I'll mostly be working on, complete with the pH meters and Windows 2000.

In addition to this lab space, I'm also supposed to wear a lab coat while in the lab. Now, I look like an actual chemist, but I don't quite feel like one yet. This may be because of the paperwork that I've had to complete - I basically had to sign my life away. No big deal. In addition to the waivers, I just completed an online course in lab safety, which was helpful. I learned about the plethora of chemicals that could main and/or kill me (including a strain of influenza that was decently lethal in the early 1900s. Luckily for me, that virus isn't being used for testing at this time). I don't think I'll start working on my project until early next week because a committee at BYU needs to officially authorize me to use the equipment. 

Nevertheless, I've researched more on the mechanism of the influenza a virus and its usual vaccines. Most vaccines are manufactured months in advanced, and they target viruses with specific glycoproteins (hemagglutinin and neuraminidase). The influenza viruses are named based on these glycoproteins; for example, H1N1 and H5N1 are both influenza a  viruses, but with different humagglutinin molecules. Most vaccines are ineffective over long periods  because these glycoproteins mutate so rapidly. However, the M2 protein channels are consistent in the influenza a virus, and so a drug that blocks this channel would (hopefully) prevent all mutations of the influenza a virus from replicating.

I hope that I'll be able to work in the lab next week, so I can start making my own liposomes and testing some of the amantadine derivatives. I'll post later on the actual mechanisms (on both the influenza replication process and drug blockage) once I understand it more. For now, I'll continue waiting for approval, learning, and looking for a library (you can take me away from my books at home, but you can't take books away from me).

Until next time!
- Lauren