It's been a little over a month since my last post, and we've been slowly but surely moving along in the lab! We've been continuing to build equipment, organize the lab, and edit our protocols. And in addition to building the lab, we've gotten to do some fun extractions and mass spectrometry analysis as well! And today, I submitted my first fellowship application as an independent researcher. Fingers crossed!
This week has been a big one for the Caesar lab! Monday, we had our Biosafety cabinet delivered, which is where we will grow bacteria and fungi for our chemical ecology studies. It was certified for use on Tuesday, and yesterday, our Biosafety protocols were officially approved. This means we can start collecting microorganisms and growing and extracting them in the lab. Now the real fun begins!
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Before we got approval to work with microorganisms, my mom went down to visit my brother in South Carolina and brought back some plants for us to study in the lab. We dried and ground each plant (Usnea lichen, club moss, and nettles), and then extracted them in methanol before doing liquid-liquid partitioning (my favorite!). We ended up with 12 beautiful partitions (four per plant) which we will continue to study.
Extracting chemical constituents. From left to right: Usnea sp. (okay, it's a lichen, not a plant, used in folk medicines as an antimicrobial agent), Urtica dioica (the highly nutritious stinging nettle, often used to ease joint pain), and Diphasiastrum digitatum (club moss, used medicinally to treat urinary and digestive tract ailments). Dried, ground plant material submerged in methanol to extract chemical constituents for follow up study.
Liquid-liquid partitioning. To simplify the complex botanical extracts, we used liquid-liquid partitioning to separate constituents based on their solubility profiles. Always a very colorful and satisfying process!
Smile! Each of our three plant extracts was separated into four partitions: a hexane partition (containing fats and oils), an ethyl acetate fraction (containing the small organic molecules, most often the medicinal ones!), a water fraction (containing sugars), and a saline layer (containing hydrosoluble tannins).
I'm really loving getting to know my students better, and it feels so good to be in the lab, generating new samples and new data again. I can't wait to see what's next!
The two types of scientists. Left: organized and methodical (Lexie, Ashley, and Dr. Caesar), Right: agents of chaos (Elijah). Of course, every good team needs a little chaos to shake things up a bit.
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One last thing I wanted to mention. This month is LGBTQ history month, and though I missed "National Coming Out Day," I wanted to share that I identify as queer/pansexual. I officially came out in 2008 to my incredible Aunt Mimi, and have been extremely fortunate to have a warm and accepting community of family and friends to support my journey.
To my friends, colleagues, students, and fellow scientists still in the closet, and to those who had painful exits from the closet, I am sending you extra love today and always. You are not obligated to share your story.
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