I cannot believe this was my last week in the lab and I am sad to see it all come to an end. This week we primarily focused on making our posters to present on our last day. We were to make three posters per group and each poster included the analysis method used to determine the ligand rank ordering, so a total of three analyses per group. Each group came up with three new methods. Also, by the end of the week each group had to submit their final rank ordering of all 12 ligands.
My groups’ three analyses methods were: Molecular Mechanics Poisson Boltzmann Surface Area(MM-PBSA), Definition of Secondary Structure of Protein(DSSP), and Hydrogen/Distance Analysis.
On Friday, we had our “BioChemCoRe Grand Finale” where we presented our posters to family and members from the Amaro Lab. Also, our mentors revealed the correct rank ordering. Unfortunately, my group and I only had one out of the 12 ligands in the correct ordering. Pharmacologists don’t necessarily need the exact ordering of drugs. They just want to be able to make two groups, the best and worst drugs. In other words, if there’s 12 drugs, they just want to know which 6 are the best and don’t necessarily worry about the ordering within the those 6. Although we didn’t have the correct rank ordering, we were able to make the correct groups of those ligands.
The Amaro Lab and BioChemCoRe group
Outside the lab for my final week, I spent as much time as I could at the beach along with Ty. We also went out to dinner one night and explored more around the area as well. We wanted to do as much things outside the lab as possible since it was our last week.
La Jolla Shores
I am finally home and happy to see all my friends and family. I want to thank everyone that helped make this experience possible and everyone that made it one that I will never forget. Especially, I want to thank Sarah and the Pinhead Institute. Also, Rommie Amaro and her lab members that helped with the BioChemCoRe group, specifically our mentors Christopher Lee, Benjamin Jagger, and Bryn Taylor. It has truly been a wonderful experience and I am happy for all the new friends I made.
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