He's... he's... ALIVE!
Would you believe that I was abducted by aliens for one day which was the equivalent of almost two months on earth and thus am now updating my blog at its regular interval? No? Well, fine - I am ashamed of my blogging truancy... it was kind of one of those cumulative things really, the longer I didn't update, the more daunting writing an update became and the less eager I was to do it. Also, I have I think three compelling excuses which I will outline over the course of this mega-post (or rather series of mini-posts) which explain my lax approach to blogging the last little while.
For your benefit, this post will be posted in sections (I recall a couple of you complaining about how long my posts are, so this offers the double benefit of me getting more bang for less work and you not falling into a deep trance by the time you reach the end). Today: Work/Research Update!
Things are still clipping along pretty well in the lab. It is funny how cyclical research is sometimes - you go through a three or four week funk where nothing is happening, then things just come together for a few weeks. I am still struggling a bit to get my main project working in a relevant environment (although our prototype for proof of concept worked very well), but my side projects have been plugging along nicely, in large part due to the assistance of three slaves, er, "undergraduate research opportunity students" working for you 10 hours per week each. Unfortunately, this is their last week (MIT winter semester runs February - May) so the party is over... although one of the students is staying to work the summer as a "volunteer" (her father is a heart surgeon so I suspect the whole paying tuition next year thing is not a big factor in determining her summer plans). On the other hand, it will be somewhat nice to have a break from planning the day-to-day lives of three undergrads and one and a half lab technicians, which is what I have been doing for the last couple of months - you can certainly get a lot done, but you can also get very tired (that would be blogging truancy excuse #1 :) )
Lots of other interesting research-related things are happening too. My M.D. "sub-boss" (for lack of a better term - I am a bit of a free agent but have chosen to work with this guy more often than not) is moving from Massachusetts General Hospital to Children's Hospital of Boston, which means that I will have lines on my resume indicating that I have been a research fellow at both MGH and Children's Hospital in the department of pediatrics (????) in exchange for... doing absolutely nothing. Makes a lot of sense I know, but this could actually be potentially helpful when I go to apply for health sciences-related research money (it's all about the unsubstantiated credentials).
I am also involved in writing review papers both at MIT and at McMaster. Review papers are the best kind of paper in science - you don't actually have to do any real work or accomplish anything yourself, only summarize what you and others have done in the past and give your opinion on the state of the field. As a post-doc, my job is to actually write the paper and, since both papers are about things I specialize in, essentially tell my co-authors what their opinion is on the state of the art in the field... fun! But, these papers get referenced all the time by lazy graduate students who don't want to read the original papers (I include "past-me" in this condemnation) so it is a good way to get a highly-cited, high profile paper out in the literature. Science is a lot about marketing, particularly for me at this point as an entry-level kind of researcher, so these review papers will definitely help out in "publicizing" my existence if you will.
Finally, I am also talking to a company about potentially commercializing some research I did at McMaster regarding the development of nanoparticles which can swell or shrink as the glucose concentration changes. The idea would be that if insulin is loaded into the particles, it can be released at a higher rate as the glucose level in the fluid increases - essentially a self-regulating insulin release vehicle which can meter the amount of insulin it ejects as the glucose level in the blood changes. I have no idea whether it will go anywhere (I am somewhat skeptical actually), but it has been an interesting experience in terms of thinking along with a company and looking at technologies from a more business-oriented perspective.
Tomorrow: MIT Fun! (I promise, it will be less newsy and much more frivolously entertaining) :)
