Geometric Prints and Summer in LA!

Hello loves,
Summer has officially arrived in LA (along with the official June gloom weather), but there are days in between where the sun is shining and it hits 90 degrees! Amazing beach weather, but alas, being a grad student, I am stuck in the lab while I see facebook posts about friends being poolside or at the beach! It's ok, there are some nice weather days on the weekends where I am trying to not be at work and enjoying a nice dose of Vitamin D (with some sun protection of course!)
Here is an outfit I wore out with some friends to enjoy the day! I wore this cute geometric print romper from Kaitlyn Clothing, a small boutique here in LA near UCLA, and I haven't worn it out yet, until now. And I am showing my LEGS! something that is rare nowadays because of how much I wear pants and leggings in the lab! I am a little insecure about my legs, but pairing this romper with these chunky heels, I think the look pulls together well! When I first bought the romper I didn't think it was the most flattering thing but I think it looks ok!
What do you think?

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!

It's my Birthday! Celebratory Outfit!

Hello loves!
It is my birthday today! I am officially closer to 30 than 20 now :( Granted, I'm still young and no complaints here, but here I am sitting thinking about how much I've grown in the last 5-6 years! Not only have I changed coasts (West coast vs East coast), but I feel so much happier at this point in my life! For once I feel like I have things under control, both life-wise, school-wise, project/research-wise, and now blogging-wise! It's a good feeling to start off this next year, with many more changes and opportunities in the next year!

What I'm wearing right now!

Our last night in San Diego we went for a walk by the beach and a little hike -- it was a beautiful day and it was super hot! Perfect for this playsuit I have been meaning to wear out! I love the pattern!

I was also wearing my new L*SPACE swimsuit top in Wild n Free that you can see peeking through a little -- I love it!