Okay. So my job is REALLY 24/7. Like, I have NO down time. How am I writing you, you ask? I'm on a break. Heh. No downtime. My first days teaching were a mess! Confusion, forgetting rules, AHHHHHHH!!! I was totally stressed out for the first few days, getting like 5 hours a night for sleep, while on the verge of a breakdown. I'm dead serious. I was about to bawl it all out, and quit. Then Diego came and had dinner with me, and saved me from my terrible day. (Diego is a nice guy from Florida/Indiana/Columbia....ask me about this one Elfie!!!)
Kids are great. Teaching is great. Being an RA is great. BUT doing everything! its insane!!!! impossible!!! but, possible, cuz somehow i--along with other super heroes--are doing it. I'm a superhero. You betta believe it. You no idea what I've been through the last few days. I feel like 10 years older. I've grown grey hairs, and wrinkles. Heh.
This is a terrible post. I mean, there's so much that's happened, I have no idea where to start. Let's just say that God is getting me through all of this. Just between you and me: if you ever apply to a job, make sure you KNOW every thing that is expected of you.....(I have like 10 job titles: teacher, RA, nurse assist, bell hop, quad circler, floater, office assistant, trip coordinator, activity organizer, soccer assistant....even during meals i have to work. OUTRAGEOUS!!! )
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Friday, June 24, 2005
DR2B. IMRAN ALI BABAR
2005 Gilliam Fellows
IMRAN BABAR
As a child, Imran Babar saw science unfolding every day on his family’s Minnesota farm as he grew vegetables and raised sheep. When he wasn’t working on the farm, he fashioned spare machine parts into toys. In school, that penchant for hands-on tinkering led Babar into the biology labs, where he found his calling.
article online:
http://www.hhmi.org/news/babar.html
Imran Babar
Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut
Research Field: Developmental Biology
Photo: Amenah Babar
A high-resolution photograph is available on request.
Request a photo
"The more I learned, the more I wanted to know," says Babar, 23, the son of a Pakistani father and a Native American mother. As an undergraduate at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, he found himself especially fascinated by basic cell and molecular biology. A devout Christian, Babar also led a nondenominational Bible study group and played in a campus “praise band.”
During his junior year, Babar won a spot in HHMI’s Exceptional Research Opportunities Program (EXROP), which offers summer research experiences for disadvantaged and minority undergraduates in the labs of HHMI investigators or HHMI professors. He spent his EXROP summer doing research in the lab of HHMI investigator Tyler Jacks, a geneticist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who studies cancer development.
Babar worked on a project to unravel the role of stem cells in tumor formation. He helped isolate a cell type found in the lung tissue of mice that may be an adult lung stem cell. The research has been accepted for publication in the journal Cell.
“I learned so much through EXROP — how to approach scientific questions, organize projects, collaborate, and more,” says Babar. Perhaps most important, he learned to feel more self-confident. “One of the greatest lessons was that I can be successful in science even in the highest-caliber settings,” Babar remarks. Indeed, Jacks notes that Babar is comfortable not only at the lab bench, but also before a crowd, explaining his experiments and results in formal presentations.
It’s a skill that will serve him well this fall, as he enters Ph.D. studies in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at Yale University. Babar says he chose the program for its 30 faculty members’ broad range of research. He also likes the environment at Yale. “The people are friendly and personable, intense and excited,” he says. “I can see myself fitting right in.”
IMRAN's cell article (work at MIT)
Identification of Bronchioalveolar Stem Cells in Normal Lung and Lung Cancer
Carla F. Bender Kim1, Erica L. Jackson1, 3, Amber E. Woolfenden1, 2, Sharon Lawrence1, Imran Babar2, Sinae Vogel1, Denise Crowley1, Roderick T. Bronson4 and Tyler Jacks1, 2, ,
1Center for Cancer Research and Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
2Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
Received 30 June 2004; revised 22 December 2004; accepted 31 March 2005. Published: June 16, 2005. Available online 16 June 2005.
Summary
Injury models have suggested that the lung contains anatomically and functionally distinct epithelial stem cell populations. We have isolated such a regional pulmonary stem cell population, termed bronchioalveolar stem cells (BASCs). Identified at the bronchioalveolar duct junction, BASCs were resistant to bronchiolar and alveolar damage and proliferated during epithelial cell renewal in vivo. BASCs exhibited self-renewal and were multipotent in clonal assays, highlighting their stem cell properties. Furthermore, BASCs expanded in response to oncogenic K-ras in culture and in precursors of lung tumors in vivo. These data support the hypothesis that BASCs are a stem cell population that maintains the bronchiolar Clara cells and alveolar cells of the distal lung and that their transformed counterparts give rise to adenocarcinoma. Although bronchiolar cells and alveolar cells are proposed to be the precursor cells of adenocarcinoma, this work points to BASCs as the putative cells of origin for this subtype of lung cancer.
Imran's PNAS article abstract:
MICROBIOLOGY
Longitudinal analysis of the group A Streptococcus transcriptome in experimental pharyngitis in cynomolgus macaques
Kimmo Virtaneva * , Stephen F. Porcella * , Morag R. Graham * , Robin M. Ireland *, Claire A. Johnson *, Stacy M. Ricklefs *, IMRAN BABAR!!!*, Larye D. Parkins *, Romina A. Romero * , G. Judson Corn *, Don J. Gardner ¶, John R. Bailey ¶, Michael J. Parnell ¶ and James M. Musser *, ||, **
*Laboratory of Human Bacterial Pathogenesis and ¶Veterinary Branch, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, MT 59840; and ||Center for Human Bacterial Pathogenesis Research, Department of Pathology, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030
Communicated by Richard M. Krause, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, May 10, 2005 (received for review March 3, 2005)
Identification of the genetic events that contribute to host–pathogen interactions is important for understanding the natural history of infectious diseases and developing therapeutics. Transcriptome studies conducted on pathogens have been central to this goal in recent years. However, most of these investigations have focused on specific end points or disease phases, rather than analysis of the entire time course of infection. To gain a more complete understanding of how bacterial gene expression changes over time in a primate host, the transcriptome of group A Streptococcus (GAS) was analyzed during an 86-day infection protocol in 20 cynomolgus macaques with experimental pharyngitis. The study used 260 custom Affymetrix (Santa Clara, CA) chips, and data were confirmed by TaqMan analysis. Colonization, acute, and asymptomatic phases of disease were identified. Successful colonization and severe inflammation were significantly correlated with an early onset of superantigen gene expression. The differential expression of two-component regulators covR and spy0680 (M1_spy0874) was significantly associated with GAS colony-forming units, inflammation, and phases of disease. Prophage virulence gene expression and prophage induction occurred predominantly during high pathogen cell densities and acute inflammation. We discovered that temporal changes in the GAS transcriptome were integrally linked to the phase of clinical disease and host-defense response. Knowledge of the gene expression patterns characterizing each phase of pathogen–host interaction provides avenues for targeted investigation of proven and putative virulence factors and genes of unknown function and will assist vaccine research.
IMRAN BABAR
As a child, Imran Babar saw science unfolding every day on his family’s Minnesota farm as he grew vegetables and raised sheep. When he wasn’t working on the farm, he fashioned spare machine parts into toys. In school, that penchant for hands-on tinkering led Babar into the biology labs, where he found his calling.
article online:
http://www.hhmi.org/news/babar.html
Imran Babar
Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut
Research Field: Developmental Biology
Photo: Amenah Babar
A high-resolution photograph is available on request.
Request a photo
"The more I learned, the more I wanted to know," says Babar, 23, the son of a Pakistani father and a Native American mother. As an undergraduate at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, he found himself especially fascinated by basic cell and molecular biology. A devout Christian, Babar also led a nondenominational Bible study group and played in a campus “praise band.”
During his junior year, Babar won a spot in HHMI’s Exceptional Research Opportunities Program (EXROP), which offers summer research experiences for disadvantaged and minority undergraduates in the labs of HHMI investigators or HHMI professors. He spent his EXROP summer doing research in the lab of HHMI investigator Tyler Jacks, a geneticist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who studies cancer development.
Babar worked on a project to unravel the role of stem cells in tumor formation. He helped isolate a cell type found in the lung tissue of mice that may be an adult lung stem cell. The research has been accepted for publication in the journal Cell.
“I learned so much through EXROP — how to approach scientific questions, organize projects, collaborate, and more,” says Babar. Perhaps most important, he learned to feel more self-confident. “One of the greatest lessons was that I can be successful in science even in the highest-caliber settings,” Babar remarks. Indeed, Jacks notes that Babar is comfortable not only at the lab bench, but also before a crowd, explaining his experiments and results in formal presentations.
It’s a skill that will serve him well this fall, as he enters Ph.D. studies in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at Yale University. Babar says he chose the program for its 30 faculty members’ broad range of research. He also likes the environment at Yale. “The people are friendly and personable, intense and excited,” he says. “I can see myself fitting right in.”
IMRAN's cell article (work at MIT)
Identification of Bronchioalveolar Stem Cells in Normal Lung and Lung Cancer
Carla F. Bender Kim1, Erica L. Jackson1, 3, Amber E. Woolfenden1, 2, Sharon Lawrence1, Imran Babar2, Sinae Vogel1, Denise Crowley1, Roderick T. Bronson4 and Tyler Jacks1, 2, ,
1Center for Cancer Research and Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
2Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
Received 30 June 2004; revised 22 December 2004; accepted 31 March 2005. Published: June 16, 2005. Available online 16 June 2005.
Summary
Injury models have suggested that the lung contains anatomically and functionally distinct epithelial stem cell populations. We have isolated such a regional pulmonary stem cell population, termed bronchioalveolar stem cells (BASCs). Identified at the bronchioalveolar duct junction, BASCs were resistant to bronchiolar and alveolar damage and proliferated during epithelial cell renewal in vivo. BASCs exhibited self-renewal and were multipotent in clonal assays, highlighting their stem cell properties. Furthermore, BASCs expanded in response to oncogenic K-ras in culture and in precursors of lung tumors in vivo. These data support the hypothesis that BASCs are a stem cell population that maintains the bronchiolar Clara cells and alveolar cells of the distal lung and that their transformed counterparts give rise to adenocarcinoma. Although bronchiolar cells and alveolar cells are proposed to be the precursor cells of adenocarcinoma, this work points to BASCs as the putative cells of origin for this subtype of lung cancer.
Imran's PNAS article abstract:
MICROBIOLOGY
Longitudinal analysis of the group A Streptococcus transcriptome in experimental pharyngitis in cynomolgus macaques
Kimmo Virtaneva * , Stephen F. Porcella * , Morag R. Graham * , Robin M. Ireland *, Claire A. Johnson *, Stacy M. Ricklefs *, IMRAN BABAR!!!*, Larye D. Parkins *, Romina A. Romero * , G. Judson Corn *, Don J. Gardner ¶, John R. Bailey ¶, Michael J. Parnell ¶ and James M. Musser *, ||, **
*Laboratory of Human Bacterial Pathogenesis and ¶Veterinary Branch, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, MT 59840; and ||Center for Human Bacterial Pathogenesis Research, Department of Pathology, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030
Communicated by Richard M. Krause, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, May 10, 2005 (received for review March 3, 2005)
Identification of the genetic events that contribute to host–pathogen interactions is important for understanding the natural history of infectious diseases and developing therapeutics. Transcriptome studies conducted on pathogens have been central to this goal in recent years. However, most of these investigations have focused on specific end points or disease phases, rather than analysis of the entire time course of infection. To gain a more complete understanding of how bacterial gene expression changes over time in a primate host, the transcriptome of group A Streptococcus (GAS) was analyzed during an 86-day infection protocol in 20 cynomolgus macaques with experimental pharyngitis. The study used 260 custom Affymetrix (Santa Clara, CA) chips, and data were confirmed by TaqMan analysis. Colonization, acute, and asymptomatic phases of disease were identified. Successful colonization and severe inflammation were significantly correlated with an early onset of superantigen gene expression. The differential expression of two-component regulators covR and spy0680 (M1_spy0874) was significantly associated with GAS colony-forming units, inflammation, and phases of disease. Prophage virulence gene expression and prophage induction occurred predominantly during high pathogen cell densities and acute inflammation. We discovered that temporal changes in the GAS transcriptome were integrally linked to the phase of clinical disease and host-defense response. Knowledge of the gene expression patterns characterizing each phase of pathogen–host interaction provides avenues for targeted investigation of proven and putative virulence factors and genes of unknown function and will assist vaccine research.
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Procrastination????!!
Yeah. I'm procrastinating. I'm suppose to be preparing for my classes. I visited my class, and man, is it well stocked! i am soooo excited. for real. i'm also teaching next to a star. no, really! you don't believe me. His name is Alex, he's got this great accent, he's teaching physics next door, and he's a gentlemen. Oh, and he goes to school with Prince William. He's not chaps with him or nothin, but they've taken classes, etc. But my seventh sense figures this Alex dude must be high up there too, since he's hung out with some other pretty big guys, met Clinton on the golf course, that type of thing.
But Alex is soooo sweet! I mean, he's like one of those cordial British/Scottish (I haven't figured out what he is) guys, who insists on opening every single door, and is convinced that I'm going to faint at every task and does them for me. Like we were suppose to make this poster, he not only insisted on getting the board for me, but makes the thing. And retrieves my first aid kit, and gets all my papers..okay, you get the picture.
That's the end of this one.
But Alex is soooo sweet! I mean, he's like one of those cordial British/Scottish (I haven't figured out what he is) guys, who insists on opening every single door, and is convinced that I'm going to faint at every task and does them for me. Like we were suppose to make this poster, he not only insisted on getting the board for me, but makes the thing. And retrieves my first aid kit, and gets all my papers..okay, you get the picture.
That's the end of this one.
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Btown III
This will be my third time, but first time alone, to Btown.
I'm safe and sound, thanks to God's secret agents. Did I ever tell you that I'm stupid? Well, if you were ever suspicious, this will confirm your spider sense tingles. I'm not bright, no, no, this country gal's got alot to learn.
My plane was cancelled. I had to be in Boston the next day. So I risked it, and changed flights. K? Well, my new flight involved having to catch a connection in Chicago. I could have missed it. And have been stuck in Chicago for a night. Well, I made it, because the airline made the connecting flight wait 30 minutes for me, and my four new friends--a professor from St. Cloud, a German, and two Britney Spears.
I arrived in Boston at 11pm. Smart thing to do would have been to call a cab. I said to myself, "ah, i'll save myself $80 and take the T station, to the South Station, to the Commuter, to the Worcester Stop(NOT pronounced war-chester, i was corrected 10 times) . Yep. Easy. Piece a' cake." I made it through the T---BARELY--and by protection from Up Above. You heard me. Picture it. A short brown girl, wearing an ELMO t-shirt, with 2 huge luggage bags filled with appliances and 2 carry ons. It's night. It's in an underground subway. The T-station. There are tough looking men everywhere, and one tough looking woman. I was the only naive, ignorant girl with four bags. I could have missed the LAST train, had it not been for a knight in shining armor who wisked up my stubborn--inmobile--bag and rolled/carried it for me. He then preceded to show me where I needed to go, and took both of my bags (after glancing back, and seeing that I was about to collapse in exhaustion and frustration). He took me farther than his stop. And then when he had to leave, yet another knight in shining armor took the other bag, replacing the other dude. You ask, "why did you trust these two random strangers?" Because you just know when to trust. They were trustworthy.
Okay. Well. I eventually ended up calling a cab anyways, because it ended up being like 2:30 am. And it still cost an arm and a leg. And I tipped the dude $2. I think I insulted him. But that was all I had. I think he realized I was a broke college student, since he dropped me off at Wellesley.
The past two days of Orientation, I have learned that not only am I going to be a teacher of two classes, but I'm also leading an hour long activity every other day, an assistant soccer coach, an RA--which includes entertaining the munchkins 24/7, being a counselor, an advisor, arrangeing floor activities, leading discussions on...sex and sexuality.....oh dear. what have i gotten myself into??????
Well. I'm here. and I'm gonna make it! And i refuse to not enjoy this time.
Random advice: don't pack liquid detergent in your luggage containing your CD player, your lamp, and your clock. I don't care how well you wrap/package it. I don't care how rushed you are. Go and buy powder detergent. I'm now without a functioning alarm clock. I need to go to target. Yet, I don't have any time, nor a car.
Things are good. Really, they are. I'm just overwhelmed. I think I could use a few extra break days. :)
Did I mention Wellesley is bEEEEEautiful???? Man, these girls got the whole nine yards out here. luxury and all.
I'm safe and sound, thanks to God's secret agents. Did I ever tell you that I'm stupid? Well, if you were ever suspicious, this will confirm your spider sense tingles. I'm not bright, no, no, this country gal's got alot to learn.
My plane was cancelled. I had to be in Boston the next day. So I risked it, and changed flights. K? Well, my new flight involved having to catch a connection in Chicago. I could have missed it. And have been stuck in Chicago for a night. Well, I made it, because the airline made the connecting flight wait 30 minutes for me, and my four new friends--a professor from St. Cloud, a German, and two Britney Spears.
I arrived in Boston at 11pm. Smart thing to do would have been to call a cab. I said to myself, "ah, i'll save myself $80 and take the T station, to the South Station, to the Commuter, to the Worcester Stop(NOT pronounced war-chester, i was corrected 10 times) . Yep. Easy. Piece a' cake." I made it through the T---BARELY--and by protection from Up Above. You heard me. Picture it. A short brown girl, wearing an ELMO t-shirt, with 2 huge luggage bags filled with appliances and 2 carry ons. It's night. It's in an underground subway. The T-station. There are tough looking men everywhere, and one tough looking woman. I was the only naive, ignorant girl with four bags. I could have missed the LAST train, had it not been for a knight in shining armor who wisked up my stubborn--inmobile--bag and rolled/carried it for me. He then preceded to show me where I needed to go, and took both of my bags (after glancing back, and seeing that I was about to collapse in exhaustion and frustration). He took me farther than his stop. And then when he had to leave, yet another knight in shining armor took the other bag, replacing the other dude. You ask, "why did you trust these two random strangers?" Because you just know when to trust. They were trustworthy.
Okay. Well. I eventually ended up calling a cab anyways, because it ended up being like 2:30 am. And it still cost an arm and a leg. And I tipped the dude $2. I think I insulted him. But that was all I had. I think he realized I was a broke college student, since he dropped me off at Wellesley.
The past two days of Orientation, I have learned that not only am I going to be a teacher of two classes, but I'm also leading an hour long activity every other day, an assistant soccer coach, an RA--which includes entertaining the munchkins 24/7, being a counselor, an advisor, arrangeing floor activities, leading discussions on...sex and sexuality.....oh dear. what have i gotten myself into??????
Well. I'm here. and I'm gonna make it! And i refuse to not enjoy this time.
Random advice: don't pack liquid detergent in your luggage containing your CD player, your lamp, and your clock. I don't care how well you wrap/package it. I don't care how rushed you are. Go and buy powder detergent. I'm now without a functioning alarm clock. I need to go to target. Yet, I don't have any time, nor a car.
Things are good. Really, they are. I'm just overwhelmed. I think I could use a few extra break days. :)
Did I mention Wellesley is bEEEEEautiful???? Man, these girls got the whole nine yards out here. luxury and all.
Monday, June 20, 2005
me me me me me....!
So what in the world has Amenah been doing these past few weeks?
1. taking finals. i had a genetics test. heh.
2. enjoying senior week, soliciting seniors for money....errr... slacking on the biz.
1. taking finals. i had a genetics test. heh.
2. enjoying senior week, soliciting seniors for money....errr... slacking on the biz.
- prom: hittin the street in red! but where was my waltz with Prince Charmin?? (did you see the lovely balloons at the grand??they were my doing! you like the invites? yep, that too was my contrib to the "prom committee"...heheheheh)
- gameworks: boxing like 10 rounds! i'm a champ. i tol you, Joe Louis is my hero. it's not really in my blood, but my grandpa (you know, the professional boxer related to the Brown Bomber???), now he taught me how to uppercut 'em. man, that game was terrible fun. i got a work out, and my arms were sore, but sweeeeet! knocked 'em out good, thas what i did.
- night at the reub. not that much fun. bleh. too many people, it rained, and i had wet socks.
- oh, and the whole car thing. i hate cars. so i had left my lights on during the international festival. got my car, Imran's car, jumped by Cheryl Fricke and Stephen Kampa. then ran it for 30 minutes. came back two days later, dead car. got another jump. went to the guys at Napa auto parts, had the battery tested, "well, honey, whatcha got to do, now, is run your car for like 2 hours...that'll charge 'er up. most people, they don't know that 30 minutes really aint that much chargin." I charged 'er up alright, drove around for about 2hours. parked it. came back two hours later, had a flat tire. A FLAT TIRE. and a DEAD Battery. so, then me gets real mad, and me gets a stinking new battery, tries to install it herself....David Derksen is my hero for putting my donut tire on. and my uncle is my hero for installing the battery. hey, i tried. and SMARS and EBONY are my heroines for their support, encouragement, prayers! (heh, Hari walks by --he's this tall Indian dude-- and he's like, "so what seems to be the problem here?" me explaining. "oh." he takes my tool, taps the side of the battery a couple times, a bit uncertain, hands it back, and says, "good luck!")
- champagne reception. good food. kinda silly, pretending to be adults. well i guess we are. NO. amenah didn't drink, much to Collin's dismay. I WILL NEVER DRINK!!!!! ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! i don't care if i thought the lemonade drink was spiked and refused to drink it, that i'm uneducated to make the right decision (Collin!), and I'm a fraggle.
- Friday. the day before the end of the world: still packing, still doing stuff, missed ALL the receptions due to miscommunications, had to pick up relatives at various places. made it back in time to discover Dr. Karim chattin away with Damon at the bottom of Davis...Damon seemed to be quite amused. He came early, but we had dinner. Dr. Karim made me a deal. After Yale and U of MI accepted me and forgot to give me any money, Dr. Karim says, "hey, give me your application, i'll give you a free ride, with stipend, and you don't have to be a TA." So, me's applying. should prollie inform U of MI sometime. oh, and Rakisha's and Sooms and Patty's and Collin's wonderful reception. then the exhaustion and sadness hit me for like 5 minutes. shrugged it off, and did the rest of the stuff...i can't recall all of it. such a blur.
- Graduation. Dan Rossow calls me at 2 am. 2 AM!!! i'm exhausted, I had just crawled into bed 30 minutes before, and tell him i'm graduating the next day. silly Dan. let's stop there. what a day. maybe some other time, eh?
So now what, you ask?
I am going to Btown again. To teach lil rugrats somethin 'bout the immune system and to weed them out --scare em away from wanting to be medical doctors. i 'm still tired. haven't made up from finals week. thas okay. i'm a roadrunner, like imran. errr...rather, the energizer bunny wabbit.
WHEN IS IMRAN COMING HOME?????????!!!!!??????!!!!!
i love you all. i'm sorry for disappearing for like a week. i'll tell you more later......
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