I can’t believe I start my FIFTH YEAR of graduate school later this month!! My attempt to be productive this summer before starting this milestone has been relatively fruitful but also…most days I’m Toad.

August Goals Recap:

Coral Methylation Comparison:

• Updated the manuscript so it was ready for others to look at

Virginica Sperm Labwork:

• Finished shearing and quality checking samples
• Performed MBD enrichment in two batches (batch 1, batch 2)

Gigas Gonad Labwork:

• Finished checking DNA quality
• Conduct ethanol precipitations for DNA that did not go well, but had salvagable results
• Checked sample quality after ethanol precipitations
• Sent DNA for sequencing! Which got prompty returned back…so I sent it out again.
• Looked into RNA isolation protocol and materials

Other:

• Finished Z. marina analyses
• Drafted full ocean acidification and reproduction review
• Reviewed manuscript for Ecological Applications
• Identified a few postdoc opportunities, but didn’t finish reviewing all options or creating a timeline for postdoc funding applications due to an inconvenient existential crisis

September Goals

Virginica Labwork:

• Identify supplies needed for female MBD
• Perform MBD enrichment
• Create outline for C. virginica heredity paper
• Send male and female samples for sequencing

Gigas Gonad Labwork:

• Order materials for RNA isolation, if needed
• Test RNA extraction protocol
• Extract RNA from histology samples sent for WGBS
• Send RNA for sequencing

ATAC-Seq Labwork:

• Identify supplies needed and order
• Determine which samples should be used for testing

Coral Methylation Comparison:

• Address suggestions and comments

Other:

• Finalize ocean acidification and reproduction review for friendly reviewers
• Create WGCNA and GO-MWU figures fro Z. marina analyses
• Finalize postdoc position options and start applying