The last day of class didn’t want to give us the expected picture and our plasmidic extraction ended up being RNA or who knows what. I’m going to get those protocols working for real very soon, oh! I wish I had received the reagents a month ago. But, we are where we are and we have what we have, so, that’s what we start with.
I would be happier if the PCR and the cloning had had a better ending, but still, I think we have had a success here. The students say so, at least. It seems that we helped them understanding a few concepts, opening their minds to the tiny world of molecules, and seeing themselves doing these things on their own. I will be glad to see any of them applying the knowledge they have gained here.
After the IBRO School and this MolBio Course, this introvert that writes needs serious solitude treatment, but I have to admit that I will miss coming into a lab full of people willing to learn. I will especially miss the women, we don’t have many around here in KIU. I wish all the students the best of lucks. I hope the experience was worth the effort of coming all the way to Ishaka. You have now a place that you can call home in Western East Africa.
Safe travels and see you somewhere on planet Earth sometime in the near or far future.
Hi there. I love your attitude and adventure, Marta. Teaching molbio there must be extremely difficult but also very, very rewarding. Did you ever consider changing the world the way you are doing it but in a much more ambitious way? For example, would it be possible to create a biotechnology plant to produce recombinant therapeutic proteins? It is not so difficult once you create a molecular biology lab, just scaling things up... Logistics must be a nightmare but, hey, what the hell? You only live once, you gotta stirr things and mess up a little... You could get second-hand equipment. I bet you could get pro bono funding from some American or Europen big pharma... Also from some business school, you could get business education, accounting, operatione, etc...
ReplyDeleteCome on, you already gave the first step, don't stop there... Do it BIGGER !!
Antonio
Sorry I didn't publish and respond to your comment before, Antonio, although I am glad we e-mailed. Not sure why but I didn't get any notice and I have been so busy for the last couple of months that I didn't check the blog much.
DeleteI do like the idea. I have so much on my plate right now that it seems like a bit of a dream to be able to start up such project, but I will certainly keep it in mind and collaborate with anyone with the will, energy and time to push something like that.