At school

When I am at school this semester I am either being a TA or working on my research. I am teaching two Botany labs on Mondays. So on Mondays I prepare for the lab and take care of plants. Then I have lab for 4 hours and I clean up after students leave. On Tuesdays I have a TA meeting because I am the coordinator for the Botany labs. Two other TAs work with me, so at the meeting I basically get to boss them around and tell them what to do to get ready for labs. I am good at this (being bossy!) and I've been the coordinator for the last 5 semesters. Then I take care of some more plants. I also have to grade quizzes and assignments.
When I am not doing these things, I work on my research. My research for my thesis has to be original and something that I design myself. So the subject of herpetology (study of amphibians and reptiles) has interested me for a long time. Well, at Midwestern there is not anyone working in this field. Dr. Scales comes close because in his genetic and developmental research he uses African clawed frogs. Although I am more interested in reptiles, I thought maybe I could work with frogs. I heard about antimicrobial peptides being found in frog skin. I thought this sounded exciting. I found out what frogs have already been studied, with the most popular or well-known being the African clawed frog. However, this area in antimicrobial peptides is not Dr. Scales area. He deals with finding genes and such. He has never done research with antimicrobial peptides, but I thought that he could help me.
Anyway, peptides are small proteins. These antimicrobial peptides are found in all types of organisms as a type of immune defense system. The peptides inhibit and kill bacterias, fungi, and even some protozoans. Some peptides can even kill cancer cells without harming other cells. I chose to study the cricket frog, which is a small brown frog that is locally abundant. Later I will try to post a picture of what these frogs look like.
Here's a pic of me and Dr. Scales at a school trip to the OU Biological Station.