ExpBio 2015: Day 3 - Reppin the Blue and Gold

Happy Monday!
Today is Day 3 of the Experimental Biology 2015 conference here in Boston, MA, and it is getting good!
I woke up early today to head to a Post Translational Modifications Session on Arginine Modifications, and it was great! I learned a lot about the research that is going on in my field, and I got to meet another professor who I have collaborated with/tested some enzyme activity. The session was 2.5 hours long, but it seemed to fly by. Each talk was about 20ish minutes I believe, and there are some really interesting things going on in the arginine modification world! One of the most interesting things I learned is about Arginine Phosphorylation in bacteria! If you are knowledgable about the eukaryotic proteasome degradation system, you know that proteins get marked for degradation by ubiquitination, which then signals shuttling/entrance into the proteasome and then the protein will get degraded.
Apparently, some bacteria, specifically Bacillus subtilis have an arginine kinase, that originally was identified as a tyrosine kinase. First off, I didn't know that arginine could get phosphorylated. Second, this phosphorylation is thought to work as a degradation marker for the proteasome in these bacteria! I did not know about this. The fact that arginine, which is positively charged, can become a bulky entity with now a large negative charge, I guess it just never crossed my mind!
After this session, I attended a bioinformatics session on how to find proteins with unknown function through online database searches and groupings. I learned how to use new online tools that I will check out to learn more about my enzyme and its orthologs!

There are a couple of networking sessions coming up tonight, and I am excited to attend and meet more people! So far at every session I have gone to I have met a lot of great, nice people who do amazing research. The next session is to "Celebrate the JBC (Journal of Biological Chemistry)", where we can meet the associate editors of the journal! I am super excited about this because I am currently finishing up writing my first author manuscript for submission to JBC -- so this will be a great opportunity to meet those in charge and make some connections. In addition, it adds a personal touch -- when requesting editors for your paper, without knowing who these people are or having any experience in writing/submitting a manuscript to a journal, it is a little daunting. I am excited for this opportunity! After this event, there is another networking/social event for "Young and Emerging Scientists (Y.E.S.), where there will be music, food and drinks! I am excited to also meet some more students.
Networking. Networking. Networking!

Oh, and my outfit. I almost forgot, got so caught up in the amazing time I'm having here going to talks and meeting people! Today, since I have finally learned my lesson about the cold in Boston, I decided to wear my black dress pants from NY&C, and I wore black boots under them that are comfortable enough to walk around in all day. Usually I would opt for heels but this time I am going for comfort (and they still look good with the dress pants!). I decided to wear a blue/white/yellow blouse my aunt also sent me for my birthday (haha, another nice piece she sent me, she sent me a whole big package), and it is from Oasis. It was a little loose so I used a black skinny belt with some gold accents from Kaitlyn Clothing that I bought a couple of years ago. It also happened to match my UCLA school colors, so it is like I am repping my school! I decided to also wear another statement necklace, a white one from Charlotte Russe that I have blogged about before. I love being able to rewear and repurpose my pieces! It creates a totally different look while getting my money's worth! Here are only a few shots, I was in a rush to get to the convention center  because I had to be there early... but they came out cute!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post, where I will be featuring student fashion at the conference! I have spotted a lot of fashionable people, way too many for me to take photos of, but the ones I was able to approach and ask for a photo, they were more than happy to take a pic! So that will be coming tomorrow.
If you are reading this and see me at any of the events tonight, come say hi and let me take your photo!

Again, I am also live tweeting the conference, research related and whimsical tweets, so be sure to follow me on twitter @phd_fashionista with the hashtags #ExpBio #EB2015 #ASBMB and lastly the one I created for the fashion, #ExpBioFashion.


Let me know any thoughts, comments or ideas in the comments section below! Or send me an email or a tweet! I look forward to hearing from you!

Andrea