Some SOB Pervert Broke Into My Apartment...

I heard a loud scream at about 4:45 in the morning last Friday; at first I thought it was someone messing around so I rolled over to go back to sleep but then I heard my roommate Martha yell "Are you okay?  Are you alright? What happened?"

I got out of bed, took out my earplugs and pulled my face mask up on the top of my head and headed over to my other roommate to ask her if she was okay. She told me that a noise woke her up; her room was completely dark- she had a sheet over the window to block the light.  When she grabbed her phone and opened it, there was just enough light that she could see a man on his hands and knees going through her drawers.  He got up and groped her and that's when she screamed- he said "It's okay" and then ran out of the apartment.  Freaking SOB perv.

The police came over.  Then the detectives (dusting for prints below)

(I know, only a freak would be taking pictures with detectives, policemen and locksmiths over doing their thing.)

My other roommate thought she heard someone trying to get into her room (which was locked) around 2:00 or 2:30 AM.  She even called out "who's there?" - but brushed it off and went back to sleep because she thought it was me or whatever.  Basically we think the SOB pervert was in our apartment doing who knows what for 2 or 3 hours; he made off with some of my roommates underwear... freakin' sicko.  My room was unlocked; I don't know if he went in or anything... I'm hoping not (it was so messy he would've tripped on shoes or something... I hope he took one look and turned around.)

We moved apartments but all of us are still creeped out.  We don't know how he got in... did he have a key? They haven't found the pervert yet. We've had trouble sleeping, we check in closets, under beds and behind doors- we're paranoid.  We've boobie trapped the front entrance.  We don't feel safe and it sucks!  

Things could have been a whole lot worse and we are grateful to be safe and unharmed.  Be careful... you never think anything's going to happen to you but there are a bunch of creeps out there. 

Moab

The first week in the lab was great; I've already learned so much.  Dr. Capecchi was really nice- I'm working closely with one of hist postdoctoral fellows and a lab technician.

The other day we had a required seminar to attend for my research program.  One of the administrative workers for the summer research program asked me "are you turning mice into bats yet up there in Capecchi's lab?" and laughed.  I thought she was joking.

So far I have been learning a lot of techniques and pieces of things; today I got a general overview of two main projects we are working on. One of the large projects is focused on transferring an entire bat chromosome into a mouse stem cell with the hopes of creating a transgenic mouse that expresses the bat DNA- turning a mouse into a bat! The other day I got into the lab and Matt (the postdoc I work with) told me Mario needed to meet with him most of the day and wouldn't be around so I would need to get help from Joan (lab technician).  Apparently Mario had a meeting with Bill Gates in a few days to get some more grant money to fund the project and needed some presentation materials from Matt... I know, right?!! Too cool.

We went to Moab last weekend as part of this research program.  We had a lot of fun river rafting down the Colorado River.

I'm making some new friends...

The weather was perfect- not too hot and not too cloudy.

We hiked up to Delicate Arch; the wind was blowing so hard with a bunch of sand in it that it was probably as good as a microderm abrasion treatment.  Too bad you can't really see the arch in the picture; we were too busy fighting the wind to check and make sure we got a good shot.

I Speak Dork...

My family has always kind of teased me because I am such a dork.  Whenever one of them spouts off a random question or wandering, I tend to spout off some scientific explanation.  I can't help it, I am a dork.  I was the science club president in high school and did science fair projects... enough said?

In 2007 Drs. Mario Capecchi, Oliver Smithies, and Martin Evans were the cowinners of the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine for pioneering transgenic "knockout" mice technology.

If you know what transgenic mice are then you probably speak dork too.

This is Dr. Capecchi, co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine:

I was accepted into the University of Utah Summer Undergraduate Research Program (well not really, I applied for it but they put me into another program for minority students; basically the same thing).  I was in Córdoba working in the lab on a geometric morphometrics project (that's "dork" for I was studying shapes of flowers) when I checked my email and frantically read: 

Hi Malaina,

Since we didn’t hear from you (see below), we are assuming you’ve decided not to join us this summer.  We will be withdrawing your offer as of 3/16/09 if we don’t hear from you.

"Below" was my acceptance letter and a request that I formally accept their offer by March 9th... I received the email on March 13th!  I didn't get the acceptance email! I had been waiting and waiting for some kind of reply to my application but didn't receive any kind of email until this "final notice" email.  In absolute horror I wrote back something to the effect of "I didn't get the email, please still let me come!"

I skyped my family and was about ready to sick them on the U's butt with emails and phone calls so they wouldn't withdraw my offer (I was afraid my emails weren't getting there from Argentina)... luckily my contact at the U replied and said she got my email and that all was well, I was accepted into the program.

My next task was to send in some forms and list my TOP 5 faculty members I wanted to work with this summer...

Two years earlier while sitting in my Bio 240 molecular biology class, my teacher- Professor Bridgewater- was lecturing on stem cells and "knockout" mice.  During this time they announced Dr. Mario Capecchi as co-winner of the Nobel Prize for his work on knockout mice. Dr. Bridgewater worked with Dr. Capecchi while doing her graduate degree or post-doc- sometime in her career.  She told us what a great guy he was to work with and that if we ever got the chance to work with him we should...

I remember thinking to myself, "Yeah right, like that's ever gonna' happen."

Back to picking my TOP 5:

I'm in Argentina reading over faculty statements because I needed to choose five; I remember Dr. Bridgewater's statement about working with Dr. Capecchi and I put his name down as my number one choice, and then my other 4 choices.

Low and behold:

I'm on some dumpy hostel computer in El Calafate, Argentina checking my emails and I come to find out my research mentor for the Summer Undergraduate Research Program is...

drum roll please....

duh dada duh...

Nobel Prize Winner Dr. Mario Capecchi!

I didn't actually think I'd get in because I figured EVERYONE would put his name down and someone with more lab experience would work in his lab (if he even accepted undergraduate lab grunts).

So it's the night before I meet Dr. Capecchi and he introduces me to the lab in which I will work this summer, AND I'M NERVOUS AS HELL!

What if I go in there and make a complete idiot of myself???  He's probably a nice guy but he is also a Nobel Prize winner who studied under James Watson- Watson of Watson and Crick! The dudes that discovered the structure of DNA- even if you don't speak dork you've probably heard of them.

I gotta' go to bed.  Send some good Qi (chi) my way if you don't mind...