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This month was particularly good because the Tour Down Under was in town and provided some pretty serious entertainment to me when I definitely should have been working, but I excuse it by rationalising it's the one time of year I watch sport! 

This month has been about chasing loose ends because my major review is approaching fast. I'm in a pretty fortunate position where I've done a lot of work and have a stack to show, but I like to challenge myself and I desperately want a relatively complete narrative for my theories. 

I've also had some interesting data come through which hopefully is the exciting option where what I'm treating my cells with is causing DNA damage and resulting in a cell cycle regulator kicking in to sort the cells out and stopping them from becoming oncogenic. 

Catch you next time :)
Max 

Bit of a funny month, filled with some serious wins and some pretty big failures. Research is a little funny like that, one week you feel on top of the world then the next you feel like you're a fraud. I keep reminding myself that "I am more than my PhD".

What I've found especially challenging but also helpful was to take a step back from what I'm doing to figure out what exactly I want to find out and how best to do that. Riding the coattails of some work I had completed in the middle of the year, I had decided I could bang out a serious of experiments that would be hugely influential for my thesis and likely would net me a paper. I was so confident that I went straight into it without first checking...all for it to fail, and fail quite spectacularly. But it was a good wake-up call. While it's good to feel like you're in control, you're never so in control that failure isn't a possibility.

Fortunately taking a step back was a good thing and my data is looking more positive with some changes, though I don't think it will result in a paper as quickly as I had initially thought. Next year!

Catch you next time :)
Max 

Golly, I guess the monthly updates went really well!

It's been a hot minute and I guess I completely forgot about this aspect of the website. I've made a note to myself to update this whenever I have a lull in work so here we are, during a lull.

The Tldr is that I am still attempting to clone my two novel fusion genes into an appropriate destination vector, it seems that this process is a lot harder than I would have thought. I have successfully created one destination vector so far with two more on the way. Cell line transfection will be just around the corner I think so it's all looking up!

Fortunately, that's not all I've been up to. The troubles with PCR/cloning I've had have forced me to think about other avenues of investigation that I could possibly follow and with my Oxford bid ultimately failing I have incorporated some of that project into what I'm doing here.

If you haven't heard of extracellular vesicles, specifically microvesicles and exosomes, I would highly recommend you taking a look as they are highly dynamic nanoparticles that likely play a whole host of roles in disease. I will be looking at what possible role they play in disease relapse/treatment resistance and have an idea for their use as a treatment.

What this has ultimately taught me though is to take a step back and figure out what your strengths are. If I hadn't done this, it's entirely possible with all the extra time I had I would have generated my two cell lines by now and be testing drugs etc on them. However, because I took the time to wonder, I now have a part of my project that didn't exist before and have fully realised it in several ways. The next few months will be extremely exciting and I'm looking forward to what data will come of it!

Catch you next time :)
Max 

March in Adelaide is called Mad March, and for those who live here, I don't need to explain why. But for those who aren't familiar with the city, everything cultural happens in March. They really didn't plan this time of year too well in my humble opinion but then again I don't know a whole lot about event planning.

Anyway, this month could be summed up with two words: PCR; and teaching. I've been diving head-first into PCRs, which as usual are somewhat successful and very frustrating. However, I've had some wins and I've learnt some new techniques such as gel extractions which is all in preparation for the eventual cloning of my two novel fusion genes.

I've also developed my project to a place where both my primary supervisor and myself are happy with it. I've incorporated a new space that I'm quite excited about and will talk about more in the coming months, however for now watch this space. Let's just say I'm very excited to get back on the microscope.

See you in April :)
Max

February was packed, even for a short month! I started my PhD with Dr Laura Eadie and Professor Deborah White at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI for that mouthful), I was accepted to study a DPhil (PhD) in Women's and Reproductive Health at the University of Oxford, and I saw some of my favourite artists and bands ever.

This post won't be super content heavy but typically this page will be dedicated to how my project is progressing. Because I've only just started my PhD, I've been doing a stack of reading. I always found it quite funny that my mum would say if I stared at the computer screen all day I would get square eyes. Computer screens are now rectangles and I can safely say that I don't have rectangle eyes, though I kind of wish I did because it would show the world how much I stare at one.

My first "assignment" for my PhD is to conduct a literature review. I was asked to base it off another literature review, but I found this review to be a little simple in its approach. I hope I haven't bitten off more that I can chew but I've decided to conduct some meta-analysis (where possible) as I believe if I'm going to traul through all this data I may as well try and show something novel from it.

I wasn't expecting to be accepted to Oxford and I'm by no means complaining about that fact, though it is a complicating factor. Fortunately, my supervisors in Australia are very supportive and have encouraged me to apply for international scholarships that could fascilitate my attendance. In their words "that could set you up for life" which is a fact I know all too well. I won't go into what scholarships etc because it is quite a competitive space. 

Finally, Camp Cope's final show in Adelaide was sick, 10/10. I also sang along to every song at Phoebe Bridger's concert and had such a great time. Live music is so good and I can't wait to attend more.

Until next time!
Max