Good morning! Happy FRIDAY!! Friday's don't actually mean that much to me anymore because I spend so many weekends doing work. The nice part of that is that weekdays don't always mean that much, either. It's nice not feeling tied to a stringent work schedule. I work hard, but it's all my own choice - i.e. not imposed by anyone else really. I can't imagine going back to having a strict boss. (not that I ever did ;-)
I have been having a bug coming on for the past couple of days and I think it hit full force today. I woke up feeling really crappy, which totally sucks because our friend Wolt is coming up from Philly tonight to stay for the weekend!!! I'm SO HAPPY TO SEE HIM. Wolt is Brian's roommate from when he was at Valley Forge back in the day and he's sort of like a brother to both of us. The minute I met him 5 years ago I immediately knew he was someone I could completely be myself around - aka - he would always be a friend no matter what. Brian's band has their debut show tomorrow night and Wolt wanted to be here for it. Also, he goes off to basic training for the Navy soon, and so we didn't know when we would see him again.
The Park has been incredibly pretty lately. Lush, green, and lots of flowers. The only thing that is driving me nuts is the OAK POLLEN!! It doesn't bother me because of allergies or anything like that. It annoys me because it gets stuck in Sofie & Bear's hair like CRAZY. They literally look like Swiffer Sweepers when we are done with our walks.
I was thinking about not going in today and just working on my ACE at home, but I got an email about a super cool talk about breast cancer and stem cells that I think I would like to go to. There's been a lot of interest lately in the potential to "re-program" cells that are already "differentiated." Aka - turn cells into other types of cells. I would like to know how this relates to breast cancer because I haven't heard much about it. While my lab deals with cancer and has a few cancer projects, I am mainly focused right now on how interactions between effector (disease fighting) and regulatory (suppressive) T cells can promote or protect against autoimmune disorders based on the quantitative balance between a shared resource (a T cell growth factor called Interleukin 2). Hyper-active effector T cells have been implicated in almost every characterized autoimmune disorder including Multiple sclerosis (T cells attack and destroy the myelin coating nerves), Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (T cells attack various organs like kidneys or heart or skin), Psorasis (T cells attack skin cells), and Rheumatoid Arthritis (T cells attack components of joints primarily in the fingers). I am also very interested in cancer, though, because T cells are important for destroying tumors. Tumors can even create an immuno-suppressive micro-environment in order to protect themselves from the immune system and promote their own survival.
How cute does my sweet-faced Sofie look in that top photo?
She is just my little pearl.
Carpe diem,
J
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