Tag: iowa city

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Teaching Experience

About a month ago, the FUTURE in Biomedical Sciences group here at the University held a forum, of sorts, to help answer questions from graduate students and postdocs regarding what it takes to get a job at a Liberal Arts institution, especially in the State of Iowa (where these four individuals reside).  The FUTURE group, now in its second year, has multiple professors from Liberal Arts schools across the state (this year’s participants came from Loras College, Drake University, Morningside College and Wartburg College) come to Iowa City to do research for the summer, learning some new experimental techniques and generally expanding their horizons beyond what they can do at their respective institutions.  The forum was very informative, covering a variety of topics including how to write up your resume, what kinds of places to apply to, what to look for in a school, when to start looking for jobs, and what the jobs tend to be like.  More than anything, however, they all stressed the need for experience: the more experience you have on your application, the better chance you’ll stand against other applicants.  I’m not really looking for another job yet or anything, but it’s really good to have this information at the back of my mind as I keep building up that resume.  Hearing them talk about their jobs makes me want to get to that stage even more, providing me with some much needed motivation to get a few things done while I’m here!

Thankfully, I already have a leg up on that one.  Back at SLU, I had the good fortune of getting to teach in “Drugs We Use and Abuse,” a course run by the graduate students of the Pharm/Phys Department.  It is team-taught each Fall to around 50 non-majors (e.g. Business majors, History majors, etc.) and generally centers around…well…just what it sounds like.  If you ever wanted to learn what meth, cocaine, opiates, depressants and caffeine do to your body, then this is the class for you.  I taught in it for 3 years: I was a section director for 2 of those years and course director for 1 year.  The experience was very good, so much that I decided I want to do it full-time as a career: teach at the undergraduate level.

When I took the position here at the University of Iowa, I asked my mentor if it would be alright for me to continue teaching occasionally alongside the rest of the research I’m doing.  He was kind enough to allow it (if anything, he was excited that I’d take a few lectures off his hands).  This October, I’ll be teaching two classes of Advanced Toxicology, one talking about neurotransmission and the other talking about neurotoxic agents (e.g. cocaine, methamphetamine and ecstasy).  Both of these subjects are within my proverbial wheelhouse, so they shouldn’t take up all that much preparation time.  That, and I have the previous year’s lectures in a Powerpoint file to help me throw something together.  While Drugs We Use and Abuse was directed at non-major undergraduates, this class is for graduate students and there are only 12 in the class, so the dynamic will be quite a bit different than what I’m used to.

I will likely get the opportunity to teach in the Spring as well.  That course is in our department, Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products, and is also targeted at graduate students (and will likely be just as small, if not smaller).  Not sure when we’ll get that going, but it probably won’t be until January, knowing how things go around here.

Either way, I think I’m doing a reasonably decent job at preparing for what’s ahead, with regards to that whole “career” thing.  At the very least, getting to add a few “guest lecturer” points on my CV is always a welcome addition.

And maybe I’ll even have a little fun doing it.  🙂

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At Work and Working

Now that I’ve been working at the University of Iowa for over 3 months, I figured I’m past-due to explain what exactly I’m doing. Honestly, it takes about that long when you’re in a new job like this to figure out what’s going on, who you’re working with, and what the general trajectory of the position really is. Suffice to say, it’s all been very interesting thus far and I’m enjoying myself.

As I’ve stated before, I’m a “Postdoctoral Research Scholar” in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Iowa.  A “Postdoc,” as we’re commonly referred to, could be equated with a medical doctor’s “Residency” period.  At this point in the career, you are above a Graduate Student (i.e. no longer taking classes), but you’re still below a full Faculty Member (i.e. no responsibilities with committees, teaching, etc.).  Basically, you have more responsibility and freedom than you did as a Grad Student, but you still report to a mentor for training and guidance.  I have been adjusting to this dynamic over the past three months, but it will probably become more apparent as the school year starts and the graduate students in the lab start attending various functions that I’m not required to attend anymore.

Speaking of which, the other students in the lab are cool.  They certainly aren’t like what I experienced at Saint Louis University (no alcohol allowed on campus…stupid public schools… :-P), but they are a dedicated bunch that do good science.  This is also a larger lab environment than I became accustomed to at SLU, with 4 graduate students and a lab manager (and now a postdoc) in this lab alone, plus all of the other students in the other labs we work with.  The grad students in our lab are working on related, yet different, aspects of Parkinson’s disease, ranging from the effects of neurotoxins on PD-like symptoms to protein binding to dopamine metabolism.  One thing I’ve noticed is that this lab is much more Chemistry oriented than anything we had at SLU.  Considering that I haven’t taken a Chemistry course in over 5 years, I’m having to remind myself and/or re-learn some basic concepts that I haven’t had to use since then.

However, that’s kinda the point of a postdoc.  The general rule of thumb in choosing an appropriate postdoc position is to a). use techniques you already know in a different scientific field, or b). stay in the same scientific field but learn completely new techniques.  I would fit into the latter category, as I’m still working in PD research, but I’m using Chemistry much more than I did in Grad School.  The ability to use mass spectrometry as an analytical technique is especially exciting in that it’s something I’ve wanted to learn more about since Undergrad, but haven’t had access to the equipment to learn on.  Now I do, and I have a variety of scientific questions built up in my head over the past few years of things to look at.

I have just started working on a grant.  The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary government entity that provides scientific research funding, and they offer an F32 grant for Postdocs designed to help defray the cost of their employment, but also provide the funds for you to train in things you don’t know much about.  The application is due in December, so I’ve got some time, but right now I’m working on getting some preliminary data to include in the 6 page research design portion (6 pages is very, very little…I could write 20 pages today on the subject, but figuring out what is important and what isn’t will be the challenge).  The NIH has a relatively high fund rate for F32s, but the award is by no means guaranteed.  I’ve never submitted one before, but I’m going to do my best to write the best one I can.

Regardless, the lab itself is a good learning environment and I’m learning more and more about my co-workers every day.  It took awhile to figure out all of their “inner-workings” (i.e. who will take to my sarcastic personality and who won’t…), but I’m getting closer.  The science itself is very interesting and I feel like I’m learning, hopefully preparing myself for what lies ahead.

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Primer: Mass Spectrometry

These posts, tagged “Primer,” are posted for two reasons: 1). to help me get better at teaching non-scientists about science-related topics; and 2). to help non-scientists learn more about things they otherwise would not.  So, while I realize most people won’t read these, I’m going to write them anyway, partially for my own benefit, but mostly for yours.

My postdoctoral fellowship here at the University of Iowa still involves research on the mechanisms by which Parkinson’s disease progresses, much like my research at Saint Louis University, but I’m employing different techniques.  In an effort to explain those techniques, I’m going to try outlining them here, as it’s a technique that’s “tossed around” on shows like “CSI:” on an almost weekly basis.

Mass Spectrometry is a technology developed over 100 years ago and has been employed by researchers for much of that time.  The high cost of procuring one of these instruments (easily in the $10,000s, if not approaching $100,000+) makes them somewhat difficult to find in the undergraduate setting, and sometimes difficult to find in graduate schools.  Larger institutions, such as the University of Iowa, will have a few of them, but more than likely, you’ll have to share the instrument with quite a few others, not-so-patiently waiting their turn.

The instrument I’m using is called an LCMS-IT-TOF, pictured above.  The acronym stands for “liquid chromatography mass spectrometer – ion trap – time of flight.”  Each section of the acronym represents a distinct component of the mass spectrometer: there are different components that can be inserted to achieve similar analytical results in a different fashion.  Some components are better for some types of analyses, while other components are better for others.

But, in keeping this relatively simple, I won’t go into it each part.  Feel free to check out the Wikipedia article on the subject if you really want to know more about it, but basically, a mass spectrometer is divided into three primary components:

  • A source
  • A mass analyzer
  • A detector

The “source” effectively destroys whatever you’re wanting to look at.  There are a variety of different sources one can have in their configuration (e.g. MALDI, ESI, ACPI, etc.) In my case, let’s say you have a protein you want to investigate.  The mass analyzer can look at it, but the nature of the type of data it provides makes it much easier to break the protein up into smaller bits first.  Therefore, the source breaks up your relatively large molecule of interest (such as the protein in our example) into smaller, more manageable pieces.  As with many other things, taking things in “baby steps” is much easier to deal with.

The “mass analyzer” is necessary to help with sorting of all those small, manageable pieces.  Think of this process like a box of cereal (I know, right?). Specifically, Frosted Mini-Wheats.  When you open the box, you’ll notice that there are mostly fully-formed Mini-Wheats at the top of the box.  As you continue on toward the bottom, you’ll start seeing some smaller pieces, some that may have split in half, for example.  And at the bottom of the box, you’ll see all the individual wheat fibers and sugar frosting.  The same premise holds for a mass analyzer.  All those pieces of protein broken up by the source are in different sizes, and the mass analyzer helps sort them out in such a way that the small pieces, medium pieces, and the large pieces are all separated.  As with the source, there are many different types of mass analyzers (e.g. TOF, IT, Quadrupole, etc.) used to carry out this work, depending on what you’re looking at.

The “detector” is the piece that really gives us the information we want.  After those bits of sample are sorted, they each hit the detector one at a time and the detector tells us what the mass is, typically by actually reading the electrical charge of the sample.  Typically, the source (sometimes referred to as an “ionization source”) introduces a charge to each piece of the sample, allowing for the detector to…um…detect them.  🙂

So, how is my work fitting into this?  Our lab is interested in how a particular molecule, 3,4-dihydroxyphenylaldehyde (DOPAL) may be involved in Parkinson’s disease.  DOPAL is a metabolite of dopamine, the neurotransmitter necessary in order for you to make voluntary movements.  When you run out of dopamine (or the cells that produce it, in the region of the brain where you need it), you get Parkinson’s disease.  Dopamine is present in those cells, which therefore means DOPAL is present, too.  DOPAL is an aldehyde, which means, on a chemical level, it can bind with other molecules relatively easily.  What we want to know is whether DOPAL may bind to proteins within those cells.  This may matter because cells tend to function in certain ways, and if their individual parts (e.g. DNA, organelles, proteins, etc.) get modified somehow, they won’t work properly and, subsequently, the cell will kill itself to prevent further damage to surrounding cells and tissues.

We want to see whether DOPAL binds to any proteins.  If we can find proteins that DOPAL binds to, and if we know what those proteins do inside a cell, then we may be able to a). protect them against DOPAL’s binding, or b). develop drug targets toward those proteins to help prevent them from causing death of the cell.

How does mass spectrometry fit into this equation?  Back to our early example of a protein being introduced into a mass spectrometer.  The instrument will tell us how much a protein weighs on a molecular level.  We also know how much a single molecule of DOPAL weighs.  We can, thus, use a mass spectrometer to see whether the mass of a protein increases when DOPAL is present.  If that occurs, we can show that DOPAL has bound to the protein.  We can also get information as to where on the protein DOPAL bound, or how much DOPAL bound to the protein, and so on.

In the image above (upper left), you can see some vertical lines we refer to as “peaks.”  Each peak represents a single mass of a given protein or molecule.  You can then take that peak and “fragment” it into smaller peaks.  You can do this multiple times (e.g. MS, MS2, MS3 and so on…).  Fragmentation patterns give you an idea as to what makes up a complex molecule.  For example, if you went from MS to MS2 and had a loss of 18, you could say that you lost a water molecule during fragmentation (O=16, H=1…H2O=18).  In the case of DOPAL, we would see an increase in mass (and a shift of the peak) of 151, depending on how DOPAL bound to our protein of interest.

So, basically, that’s what I’m doing in the lab.  There’s quite a bit more to the story than this, but I think I’ve simplified the concepts to a mostly understandable level.

Probably not, though.  🙂

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Getting To Work

I started working here at the University of Iowa‘s College of Pharmacy on May 10th, so while I’m certainly not familiar with everything yet, I can at least report on some of the new research stuff, as well as the logistical experiences regarding the University of Iowa as a whole. I’ll probably post other tidbits of info about the new job over multiple posts, but for now, I’ll start at the proverbial beginning of the day.

First, let me start by pointing out that parking around the University is nothing short of ridiculous. There simply aren’t enough parking garages close to the buildings for people to park at, which is quite a change from what I’m used to at Truman State or at SLU. Thankfully, Iowa City has done a pretty good job with their Cambus system, which is a free (yes, I said “free”) commuter bus system for any resident of Iowa City or attendee of the University. There are various stops around town, so it actually gets used by a wide range of people. This is my first experience relying on a bus to get to work, however, so things have gotten “interesting” to say the least.

Secondly, let me point out that we live in Swisher, IA, which is a good 10 miles north on I-380 from Iowa City, let alone to the actual University itself. Therefore, due to the parking situation and the driving distance, I decided to start off by parking about halfway down to work at the Oakdale parking lot, a campus outside of town that has bus service, but also has free parking. This worked alright, however, the buses only seem to run every 45-60 minutes, so you really have to be there at a prescribed time, otherwise you’re waiting forever to catch another one. Also, my second day of work, the bus coming to pick us up was in an accident, meaning that the bus that replaced it ended up being an hour late. I ended up driving myself to work and finding a parking lot, which finally cost $15 for the full day of parking.

After that, I signed up for one of the commuter lots closer to campus, one that still has bus access, but the buses come to the lots more often. These lots, however, cost $20 to park in per month. There are two of these lots, both excessively far from campus, but the closer you get, the more expensive the lots become. The next “step up” would be $45/mo, and I’d still end up needing to ride the bus to get to my building. If I read the maps correctly, I’d end up paying $85/mo in order to park in a lot that’s anywhere near walking distance of my building, but it could take years before I’d be eligible to park there. So yeah, I’ve resigned myself to waiting on buses for the foreseeable future, but at least it means I get to listen to more podcasts and use my Nintendo DS more often.

In the afternoon, the bus schedule is also difficult to navigate, but I’m getting better about it. Effectively, for the ride home, I need to be at the stop for either the 4:59 bus or the 5:06 bus…but if I miss those, I have to wait until 5:36 for the next one. After I get on the bus, and get to the car, I still have the 30 min drive home from the parking lot. So yeah, on average, once you take traffic into account at the beginning and end of the day, I’m driving for close to an hour each way every day. That, and I’m staying at work longer than I used to (stoopid real jobs…).

Please keep in mind that this isn’t a complaint: it’s just a reality, and certainly an adjustment I’m having to make as compared to my experience(s) over the last 5-10 years. At Truman, I could either walk from the dorm, or ride my bike to class, taking no more than 5 minutes to get where I needed to go. In order to get to SLU every morning in grad school, I had a 10 minute drive (sometimes less). Going from 5-10 minutes to an hour of transit time is a big jump to make!

Believe you me, though, the amount of time I’m in the car every day makes me ready to have a new one… 🙂

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“Is it a PONY?!?”

DSC_0110

This past weekend, our landlord, Phil, brought over a few of his family’s horses to graze in the area just around our rental property for the next 6 weeks or so. The “painted” one is Buster (~24 yrs old) and the brown one is Pistol (a yearling). We’re told that Buddy is a relatively tame one, and Phil said we could probably put Meg up on his back. I think we’ll be waiting awhile before doing that, though. 😛

It’s the first time either of us have ever been this close to horses. We’ve certainly seen then before, but never for an extended period of time. Certainly, Edie is not amused by their presence and frequently feels like she must bark at them in an effort to scare them off. Pretty sure it wouldn’t take more than a swift kick from either horse to do some real damage to the beagle.

DSC_0106

In other news, Brooke (and I…) did some yard work this weekend. I mowed the lawn and helped turn the soil in the garden, while Brooke planted some stuff in preparation for the growing season. To my knowledge, there are tomatoes, green peppers, onions, peas, soup beans, and an assortment of herbs planted already, with more to come in the next few days. The weather this week seems to be pretty conducive to gardening, so I imagine most of it will be planted shortly. Phil did recommend that we plant tall-growing items further from the fence so that the horses can’t get to them.

Overall, it’s been nice being able to go outside and do things. Back in Soulard, there wasn’t much (productive) to do outdoors, aside from going on walks, etc. While I’m sure we’ll be tired of yard work shortly, it’s kinda nice to be able to go outside and plant things, mow the lawn, wash the car, etc.

Considering that winter starts in Iowa around, oh, mid-September, we may as well enjoy it while we can. 😉

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Progress and a Belated Thank You

First, a picture of our now in progress garden:
garden (1)
As soon as the weather warms up a little, some plants will go in, but it’s looking like that could be at least the weekend. A huge part of that was done by Andy’s dad on Saturday afternoon, so THANKS Jim!!

Second, we received an awesome baby gift awhile before we moved from the Nicholsons and I know they read this occasionally, so thanks Don and Kathy!
blanket
Since Meg’s a girl, I know I won’t have any problems convincing Eagle Scout Andy that she should be a 4-Her (not that there’s really any comparison!)!

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Back Online!

porch

Well, we’re up in Iowa. I’ve got a picture of the view from our front porch, which is arguably less interesting than the view we had on our deck in Soulard. We’re certainly in the middle of a bunch of fields! Brooke talked with our landlord yesterday and he said that the guy farming the land around us has about 10,000 acres he’s producing from. If “acres” were part of the metric system, I’d have some clue what that means…

Anyway, we loaded up our 22 ft truck on Friday in about 3 hrs, thanks to help from Mom, Dad, Ryan, Annie, Jerry and Jerry. I then proceeded to drive said truck the 4.5 hrs all the way to Swisher, IA while Brooke and Meg stayed the night in Hannibal (Sam came with me, so I wasn’t completely alone). We unloaded the truck shockingly quickly, thanks to help on this end in the form of Mark, Diana, Rachel and Jason. Since then, we’ve spent most our time unpacking and getting to know the area!

I’ll leave it to Brooke to post more later. Otherwise, I’ll be starting my position at the University of Iowa on May 10th! More on that later, too. 🙂

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Still Truckin’

DSC_0083

We’ve been doing pretty well these last few weeks, although things have gotten noticeably more hectic. As you can see in the picture above, we’re slowly packing stuff away, getting rid of furniture, and preparing for the move on April 30th (thanks, Baumanns, for all the help on Sunday!). We’re thinking a 14 ft truck will give us plenty of space, but don’t have all the boxes packed, it’s kinda hard to tell. We’ve got a pretty good start, though, and I’m carrying a few packed boxes downstairs every night.

Meg is doing well, and for the most part, she’s letting us get stuff done. She’s been sleeping 5-6 hours straight every night for the last few weeks, but these last few nights, she’s gone 7 to 7.5 hours without waking up. We’re told that’s pretty good for a 5-week-old! This means, however, that she tends to be a bit more active during the day, on average, which makes it difficult to do much packing or dissertating. Meg is getting baptized on Sunday, so we picked out music for the service…which also happens to be our last Sunday at Webster Hills. I think we picked some pretty good tunes for this one – should go out with a bang!

Speaking of “dissertating,” I handed out the “final” copies of the dissertation to my committee yesterday. In less than a week, I’ll be defending it and, hopefully, a Ph.D. 🙂 Way too much stuff to do over the next week! I’m not doing all that much studying yet, but I’ll be doing some reading over the next few days to help prepare.

Either way, we’re flying the the seat of our collective pants. Craziness!

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The Stage is Set

As discussed a few months ago, we’re moving to Iowa City, IA for a postdoctoral fellowship I scored in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Iowa. Up until last week, we weren’t entirely sure what the exact plans were, so far as where we’d be living or when we’d be leaving.

Well. Now we know. 🙂

I talked with my new boss, Dr. Doorn, last Wednesday and worked out various details of my employment in his lab. We had a lengthy conversation about all kinds of details, of course, and settled upon my start date being May 3rd. We opted to shoot for the beginning of May rather than June for a few reasons, one of which being that Brooke already told her current boss that they should have her replacement ready for the beginning of May, but also because the health insurance benefits in Iowa would save us some cash pretty immediately. My position will technically start May 3rd, but I won’t really go into work until May 10th, giving me some “adjustment time.” We’ll be back down on May 13th for my graduation, of course!

Therefore, we’ll be moving out of our apartment in Soulard on April 30th and moving in to our new place in Iowa on May 1st.

We went to Hannibal this past Sunday for Brooke’s Mom’s choir performance (very nice, Diana!), so Brooke stayed in Hannibal with Meg while I went ahead up to Iowa City to look for places to live. Brooke did an excellent job checking out practically every house on Craig’s List, so I visited a few of them and used the Flip Video to send some clips back to Brooke for her approval. I looked at a few properties, and investigated a variety of options, but eventually we settled on a farm house in Swisher, IA, about halfway between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. It’s got 3 bedrooms, one bathroom, a cellar-like basement, a huge attic (i.e. plenty of storage space), a 3 vehicle carport, and appliances (but no fridge…we’ll have to get that…and no dishwasher…so I may have to hire one…). We are expecting the lease to arrive here in St. Louis sometime this week so we can sign off on it.

So yeah, we’ve got one month for me to graduate; for us to pack…everything; and for us to say “see you later” to quite a few friends down here in St. Louis.

Somehow, I expect this April is going to fly by!