Working for CDP has been quite a learning experience. Systems Biology was in its infancy when I graduated from MIT. When I left MIT, I remember hearing Peter Sorger (the head principal investigator of the center) talking about centrosomes; now, he talks about Boolean logic. So, there is hope for me to learn modeling. Luckily, there were quite a number of conferences to help familiarize myself with the topic: the CDP retreat and CSB2 conference mid-June, and the annual NIH meeting in mid-July. Plus, I wrote the project summaries of many of the investigators for the website. I really appreciate the opportunity to come back to the cutting-edge of science, but from a different angle.
The Broad summer course was a lot more work than I had anticipated. Part of it is simply the compressed schedule. Since the course only lasted 6 weeks, every week I was commenting on assignments and preparing for the next class. But the students were really lively, and their projects were very interesting. I was particularly intrigued by how the perspective of the Broad projects compared with the CDP projects: similar techniques (such as modeling) for the same goal (human disease), but the Broad focuses only on genomics.
On top (or because) of these commitments, I traveled quite a bit – and gave talks! My first keynote speech took place at the beginning of June in Southern Connecticut State University. The day was exhausting (I took a 5 am train down to New Haven, but was effectively up at 1 am because of Ivan), but my talk and workshop went very well. I got a lot of questions, and many thanked me afterwards for attending the SCSU Teaching Academy.
The past two weeks saw me in DC (NIH annual meeting) and Las Cruces, NM (RISE conference) – both on CDP business. The NIH meeting was really cool because I got to hear how other NIH systems biology centers define “systems biology”. Although I gave a brief talk (5-7 minutes) on CDP outreach activities, I also got a lot of ideas on how we can expand our program. I also enjoyed being on the NIH campus (my first time), and was struck by the sauciness of the people working at the cafeteria:
Me: May I have a pickle (with my sandwich)?
Server: I don’t care.
The RISE conference was also great: although the projects at NMSU were not of the same caliber (simply because of resources), the students are eager to do science. RISE is an NIH initiative to help diversify biomedical sciences by making underrepresented minorities more competitive. So, while I was there, I gave a talk on some of the classes and activities I do at MIT. Another 40-minute presentation, so I was glad to have the experience of doing so at SCSU! It was also interesting to be in the desert in the summertime. Thankfully, the temperature only reached the mid-90’s during the day, but I was surprised how warm the water was at the hotel’s outdoor pool at 7 am! In all, I was treated royally in nearby Mesilla, which used to be the capital of New Mexico and has lovely authentic pueblo houses. The hotel, Meson de Mesilla, had probably the most comfortable beds; my host took me out for award-winning margaritas at the Double Eagle, and Mexican food at Andale – go for the tacos; my cousin and her husband treated me to dinner at the Double Eagle (delicious aged steaks, but the pecan pie didn’t do justice to the local pecans – NM is apparently up there with Georgia in pecan production). Great food and great conversations!
One more talk (later today), and I’m done for the summer.
I also did some writing (two articles for an education grant (just gave the drafts yesterday!), and part of an SBRI), but on top of all this, I was still a mother. Nikita was in school until the end of June, but then had at 3 playdates this past month. And if I wasn’t shuttling him back and forth, I was shuttling Ivan back and forth from a doctor’s office because he got a really nasty rash, probably from poison ivy. This really puzzled us because he is so freaked out by the lawnmowers next door (reminds me of Nikita’s fear of the street cleaner at the same age), that he refuses to go outside. Or if he is forced to be in the backyard, he doesn’t leave Galina’s lap. We though Nikita was the vector until Igor found the more likely culprit: poison ivy right by our front door! This made sense because the front porch was the only place where he walked around. Three leaves, and Igor remembers thinking how pretty the colors looked in the fall!
Weather-wise, this summer has been really anomalous. Rain most of the time, and in the 60’s. On the few days of sun, the temperature reached only the mid-70’s. It was like the spring Boston never gets. So, we went to the beach only once: Plum Island on a beautiful day. The water was actually warm enough for me to swim a little bit. But Ivan really had a great time because he was able to wander all over the place – no lawnmowers!
Despite the cool weather, Igor built up the yard a bit. He put a wooden swing under a tree, on which Nikita finally learned to swing by himself:
And this is how Ivan swings by himself:
Igor also built a climbing wall, which has been popular with both boys. Nikita is quite graceful, and it’s fun to see how he walks sideways across the walls:
Mommy, look!
As you can see, Ivan loves the climbing wall as well. He’s been freaking me out trying to climb everything in the house (drawers, file cabinets, the railings of stairs), so I’m glad he’s able to satisfy his climbing bug with the wall. In fact, the wall has helped him overcome his fear of the backyard. He actually asks to go out in order to climb, and yesterday, he was his old self, vacuuming the yard.
Okay, that’s enough for now. Even though I still haven’t described our “new” (4 years old) fridge, 100-year old piano, and ping-pong table that we acquired last week from Igor’s friend – and the skunk that we discovered in our shed in order to make our house look less like a lost-and-found. But, at least I’ve mentioned them.
