The good, the bad and the funny

The Good: Today, I attended a scientific workshop on single cell genotyping and next generation sequencing which was very useful. I don't have any experience in these techniques so really enjoyed it.

The Bad: We're collaborating with another group and gave them very important DNA samples which were collected during the past 20 yrs. After the first screening, they threw out the eppendorf tubes despite the fact we planned to do extensive downstream analyses.

The Funny: I had to drink a beer and the tapster asked me to show my ID card since I didn't look like 18. When I let him know my age everybody was laughing in the pub...(how did u freeze yourself? thirty-fucking-two? Oh my God...)

Science Museum

Today, we have visited the Science Museum in London. It was a phantastic experience; very spectacular place with a lot of vehicles and other interesting objects from the ancient Egypt sarcophagus to the space capsule. The Museum gives home for several interactive programs as well.

 The first steam engine from 1814.

On Friday, we sent the modified version of the proposal to the Research Executive Agency. It was quite an exhausting work so I'm tired a little bit. Now, we are just waiting for the positive consideration...The outlined project is completely different from the original one. The disease of interest has been changed from multiple myeloma to acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) which was quite reasonable since I already have some experience in ALL research (five papers in international journals) and my host group is absolutely in the forefront regarding this field. My current supervisor and his colleagues discovered in the '90s that the ALL, which is the most common cancer in childhood, may be originated in utero (before birth). They investigated monozygotic twin pairs concordant for ALL and found the same genetic aberration in both co-twins for which the most plausible explanation is that the first genetic event of the multi-step generation of the leukemia (leukemogenesis) occured in one twin and metastatised to the other co-twin via the shared circulation. I hope you also find it interesting...

Sorry, I'm still writing the proposal but promise the next post'll be longer...