June 27 MSTF "Spider Silk"

June 27 End of the second week at ASU
My group started the morning discussing various issues with the project. At 9:30 Janelle started to show us how to run the NMRs. Brian who is charge of the NMR lab heard us talking and stepped in to answer our many questions. My questions were more concerning the physical structural of the NMRs and Janelle answered the data interpretation questions. Brian was involved in production of NMRs and knew just about everything that is known about NMRs. It was too much information to absorb in one session, but was enjoyable trying! I need to take a few more classes to truly understand the majority of the information. Janelle asked if I used NMRs in college and my answer was a “no” with a laugh. NMRs were only theory at best in the 1970s. I believe I could really enjoy working with NMRs with a few more up to date classes in physical chemistry. I like the idea of working with webbing on the macro scale with feeding, labeling, and silking then on the other end of the research looking at the atomic level of the protein structures. The middle ground is up to another research group.
On a side note, I noticed how well the research group including Dr. Yarger and most of all the individuals involved communicated. This is absolutely necessary for progress to occur in research, no “Lone Rangers”! This is just one out of many concepts that I can bring back to the classroom.