This semester, I have been more immersed in research than ever. My time in the Butcher Lab has been informative, challenging, and enjoyable.
During the first semester, my lab work mainly consisted of pipetting and starting culture inoculation. To be perfectly honest, this was not my favorite activity because it is time consuming, but it is the basis for lab work and it was definitely necessary to be the best at it. 
The following semesters involved expressing and purifying proteins, performing full-length kinetic assays, and working on several poster presentations. These were things I had never done before, and in the beginning were difficult. The hardest thing for me was to remain sterile at all times. Now, I am a pro at handling instruments and keeping the field sterile!​
For the following semesters, I hope to become more familiar with paper-writing and the publication process. I am really looking forward to finishing up our ACOX-1.1 project and publishing it!