Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Episode LXX: Paper

Hi everyone. I am happy to announce that my first scientific paper has just recently been published, in the journal Neural Development. The title is... (deep breath)... "The Arp2/3 complex, UNC-115/abLIM, and UNC-34/Enabled regulate axon guidance and growth cone filopodia formation in Caenorhabditis elegans". If you are interested, you can find it online at neuraldevelopment.com, or if you prefer, go to Google and search "Adam D Norris" (in quotes) and the first hit will be a link to my paper. How's that for fame and glory? [editor's note: subsequent to its publication, this very blog post beat out my paper as Google's 1st hit. Oh the irony...]

If you lack the time or the interest to actually download the PDF (and I wouldn't blame you for it), here is the title page for ya (note the authors- Adam D Norris et al.)-



If you want the interesting part of the publication, without the boring parts (that is, 99% of it), here is an example video of what I do. The point is, you see a neuron as it grows from the bottom of the worm's body to the top, similar to the way a neuron from our spinal cord would grow from the spine, around the body, and up to a muscle cell on the abdomen, for instance. Unlike in humans, however, we can keep the worms alive, light up their neurons with green fluorescence, and image them as they grow. Then we can ask questions about how certain genes and gene mutations affect the process of neuron growth.

(If the video gives you trouble, just rewind it and start it over again. And blame it on blogger.com)



So, getting a publication as a first author is very important, as it is usually a necessary step toward graduating with a Ph.D. Which is not to say that I'm about to graduate, it just means that I'm on the right track. No change on that front, as I still hope I can graduate in about a year and a half (assuming all continues to go well).

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

So nice to know that YOU are interested in your research and are excited to have done your first published piece! I'm so proud of you! :)
aunt Deyon

Steven said...

Adam, you are the man. No doubt.

Diane said...

Wow....even having taken microbiology didn't help me understand much of your article. I feel rather stupid right now.
BUT... I, like Deyon, am a very proud auntie. You seem to be well on your way to reaching your goal Adam!

Jackie said...

Congrats! That is an awesome accomplishment. A few more years and we can use you as an expert at our office...since you are now published you are one step ahead of some of the "experts" we've seen.

Kyle said...

well done brother dear! i knew you had it in you. really though, good job. i'm sure it took lots of hard work. glad to see you're still moving along nicely in your education

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