I nailed the gonads!

Of the worm, that is. For five weeks I have been building my DNA construct, anticipating with nervousness the day I would get to use it. Everyone kept talking about how hard it is to inject the worms because they are so small and it’s hard to get the worm and the needle on the same plane. But I went for it today, and I nailed it!! In 3 different worms. It was so much fun.

One huge advantage to using worms rather than mice as the model organism is this: If I was doing this experiment in mice, it would take about 6 months to a year to get my result. And then if there was something wrong with the DNA or it didn’t work for some other reason, you don’t find out until that point. With these worms I injected today, I will have some results in about a week or two. That’s quite a difference in turn around. By the time I get back from Austin on Monday, I should know if I’m on the right track. By the end of next week, I should have green worms.

I went to the airport again today to pick up a recruit who will be interviewing tomorrow. At DFW there is a place where planes have an overpass across the road where the cars drive in. Today there were TWO planes that crossed over as I drove under. It was so cool!!