Welcome to my lab! :)
Hello everyone! My name is Maheen Shermohammed and I am a 2009 Howard Hughes Research Fellow. I'll be using this blog to catalogue my experiences working in my lab for the next two months. I'll try to update it as regularly as I can, though I doubt anyone outside of this program (and my parents!) are reading this ;)
Well I'll just start out with an overview of what I'm doing. I work in Dr. Nicole Calakos's lab in the Bryan Research Building. This is a neurobiology lab, and one of its key areas of study is the molecular mechanism behind presynaptic methods of synaptic plasticity. I know... it's a mouthful. Synaptic plasticity is the ability of neural connections to strengthen or weaken based on the environment and how often they are stimulated. This is pretty awesome because it's currently a popular model for the mechanisms behind learning and memory.
There is a family of synaptic proteins known as RIMs that seem to be implicated in the molecular mechanisms of plasticity. I am working with a form of one of these proteins and a mutation in it.
That's all the technical stuff- time for pretty pictures! These are just some pictures of me and my lab. While Dr. Calakos is my mentor for the program, she is a PI and thus only works with me on the overarching concepts behind the research. Zach, who is a research analyst, works with me on a more day-to-day basis. I have a picture of him as well, but I haven't asked him if I can put it up here yet, so hopefully that will be coming soon :) Enjoy!
Here is my lab bench. It's a lot cleaner when I'm not working, I promise.
These are just a couple of me working on a mini plasmid prep.
Adios!
Upon Zach's permission:
