Mod1 Blog Post

Hello world!
Let me first say that I had to ask a former 20.109er to figure out how to write to this blog. Yes, technology is hard.
Secondly, I would like to share some thoughts about Mod1, which involved the use of the CometChip assay to measure genomic stability. I thought it was really nice spin on "classic" laboratory techniques since we got to use a technology developed right here at MIT. It's quite amazing when you think about it - all the groundbreaking work done on campus, and I'm just seeping in it! It was also very nice to have Prof. Engleward share her technology with us, and to even pop into lab to check up on us.
Overall, I thought the module lacked flow: different parts of it seemed to be jammed together, and the connecting factor was that it used the CometChip as a platform. It was sometimes difficult to understand why we were doing one thing one day and something else the next day. Specifically, I thought the loading experiment could have been optimized better. If I were to do this on my own, I would never set up an experiment with just 2 different concentrations: I would have instead, titrated the concentrations. I guess the mitigating factor is that everyone in the class was doing it, but they also chose different loading times, so deciding the optimal loading conditions felt very arbitrary.
I also wished that we got to see more of what happened behind the scenes: all the work that Leslie and Maxine graciously did to move our experiments along. Obviously, biology works at the pace of life, so the students with set lab times won't be able to do everything for themselves, but it would've been nice if during pre-lab lecture, we talked about exactly what the lab instructors did for us. I think this would've created a more continuous story.
Overall, I thought it was a nice intro to 20.109, and that the data summary did a good job of introducing us to scientific documentation and writing. I liked that most of the homework assignments could be used directly for the end report (unlike that catfood article we had to read for a Mod2 homework assignment...). The mini-presentation was also a cute and relatively chill assignment, especially after writing up the data summary.
Thanks teaching staff! You guys rock!