Random thoughts
I went home early from the lab today, since yesterday I got my Comirnaty1 booster and now my immune system has declared that I Am Tired. I decided that instead of being totally unproductive, I’ll be slightly productive and write a blog post.
Anyway, here are some random ideas and updates from my life:
I’m doing a bit better on not burning out. I realized I need to not work so hard and do some fun things too. So, over the Thanksgiving weekend I made a “PIE Fighter” in Kerbal Space Program for a community competition.
I’ve now hired an undergrad to work for me starting in the spring. Our lab is still looking for an experienced research assistant. The job posting should be up soon.
Would it be possible to gene-edit cats to make them unable to carry toxoplasma? Toxoplasma requires cat intestines for its life cycle. What’s the required factor in cat intestines, and can we remove it?
I still really want to see if the osmotic pump could be feasible with modern reverse osmosis technology.
For iterated embryo selection, the key step is meiosis and gametes aren’t actually required until the very end. Can I make stem cells do meiosis independently from gametogenesis? This would also increase the selective power since haploid stem cell lines could be genotyped before “fertilization”.
Pfizer probably gave it that name so people would keep calling it “the Pfizer vaccine”.
Toxoplasma need high levels of linoleic acid for sexual reproduction and cats don’t have an enzyme necessary for break down so it just builds up in their intestinal epithelium.