Competition is in the Air

After a week-long break (that happened to align with spring break) everyone is back in the lab again. I was told that the conference went well and that the presentation was well received. The focus of the next several weeks will be Western Blots. There are 4 different Western Blot tests that need to be done.

The graduate student who is in charge of the lab decided to set up a competition between myself and the undergraduate students. Each of us will choose a protein to test with a Western Blot. The first person to successfully complete a Western Blot test will win coffee. This will not be an easy competition because Western Blot tests are extremely touchy and even skilled researchers frequently make mistakes. I am at a disadvantage because unlike the undergraduates, I have no experience with Western Blots. Over the next couple of weeks, I will be attempting to familiarize myself with the Western Blot process. I look forward to this competition because it offers another opportunity for me to gain hands on experience and become, at least, mildly proficient at Western Blots.

I spent Monday and Tuesday preparing for the Western Blot competition and reading Bernice Schacter’s book, The New Medicines. I have found that Western Blot how-to videos are very helpful. I still have a level of confusion about the process but I will be able to ask questions when I actually begin the Western Blots. The chapters that I read from The New Medicines this week detailed the history and purpose behind the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the history of pharmaceutical drugs. I learned that the FDA was created for the sole purpose of protecting consumers. Before the FDA began regulating the pharmaceutical industry, many companies produced drugs containing dangerous chemicals and made false claims about the effects and uses of the drugs. Many people were wasting their money on useless mixtures of alcohol and plants that falsely claimed to cure all ailments. The FDA then stepped in to control what was put in the drugs and what claims the companies could make about their uses. Before the FDA began regulating the American drug industry, the low quality of these drugs opened a void in the market. German pharmaceutical companies stepped in to fill this void with more effective and safe drugs. This allowed Germany to climb to the top of the pharmaceutical industry where it still remains today. Since the beginning of the 20th century, Germany has been known to produce some of the highest quality drugs in the world. The pharmaceutical company Pfizer originally began as a small shop in Germany but soon grew to be one of the largest drug companies in the world.