A lesson of hope

Faced with insurmountable odds, a young calf finds itself first in the clutches of a pride of lions. Then, to make matters even worse, a crocodile latches on and a tug-of-war ensues. The lions wrestle their prey from the croc and drag the bleating calf to shore. What will become of this poor calf? His herd watches nearby. What can they do?



I know the video is a bit long, but the imagery is just amazing. Before you read any further you have to finish watching the film, unless you like spoilers. I promise that it isn't too graphic. A bit gut wrenching perhaps, but not blood and gore. In the end, the other water buffalo come to the rescue and save the calf's life after minutes of torture at the hands of predators. The lions are chased off and the calf returns to his herd. Truly an amazing story of hope and overcoming adversity. So the next time you find yourself at the mercy of "lions" or the jaws of a "crocodile", think of the calf and have hope. We all have a "herd" that will come to our aid in times of need.

Here is a shorter version per Kristen's suggestion.

What I did as an undergraduate

Well, I thought I would dive into a bit of history. I am adding to the series of what I do now with things I have done. I chose to begin with my undergraduate time, because going further back would be a bit much and not too terribly interesting. I am keeping this in relation to science, so the other significant parts are conspicuously absent from this post, as is anything I did in graduate school.

If I were to have written this blog in 2003 or 2004 this is what I would have written: (I actually did write most of this then, but I've elaborated a bit now).

I did all (well nearly all) of this work under red-light conditions in the lab of Dr. Heidi Vollmer-Snarr at BYU.


My research revolves around A2E, a pyridinium bis-retinoid (see below).


A2E was first discovered in the late 90's and is easily oxidized by light radiation from the UV to about 500nm (see really cool picture below).


Compare the above image with this one and see you see that playing with blue light runs in the family. Harrison just wanted to be like dad. Poor little guy.


A2E was first isolated from retinal pigment epithelium and was later synthsized biomimetically. Our lab synthesizes A2E by reacting 2 equivalents of all-trans-retinal with one equivalent of ethanolamine and acetic acid. My research with A2E has evolved into two directions:

The first is A2E's implications in the etiology of age-related macular degeneration. We have found significant concentrations of A2E present in both lipofuscin and melanolipofuscin of human retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells, meaning that A2E is likely more involved in AMD than originally thought. We use high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to quantify A2E extracted from human and murine eyes. I have been working in collaboration with Dr. Kang Zhang (see What I did in Graduate School) at the University of Utah studying the human ELOVL4 gene that we believe may be partially responsible for AMD. Our research involves studying A2E concentrations in ELOVL4 transgenic mice compared to normal mice. See publications.

My second area of focus is A2E's application as a photodynamic chemotherapy treatment. Evidence shows that A2E is not cytotoxic alone, but becomes lethal when exposed to blue light. The light mechanism involved in A2E toxicity can be controlled and used to trigger cytotoxicity in cancer cell lines. We have been studying A2E's triggered cytoxicity on HeLa cell lines, but have recently begun similar experiments on HL-60 cells. We hope to begin further studies on MCF-7 cells soon. We have also linked folic acid onto A2E making an A2E-FA compound that we will use in competition assays with A2E. I presented several papers on this topic at national meetings and hope to have a journal publication soon.

I should also acknowledge my grants from BYU ORCA and the BYU Cancer Research Center.

Grading a Midterm

A day after proctoring a midterm I found myself grading a midterm. 8 pages. 118 questions. Nearly 300 students. You get the picture. Well, fortunately for me, I only had to grade 1 page, times just 10 questions, times about 300 tests. That's 3000 answers to grade for those who were trying to do the math in their heads. The mnemonic I used to help me remember the correct answer order is still in my head. But, I count my blessings. I could have had the page with 21 questions. In other words, 6300 answers to grade. Way to go Brendan!! Thank you students for some very colorful answers or just random thoughts scribbled on the page that broke the monotony.

I get a week reprieve before exams are handed back and my inbox fills. Until then, I'll have to come up with some fun topic to discuss next week.

Proctoring a Midterm

Carrying a box full of blank exams down the aisle, I can sense the suspense. 150 or so eyes watch as the exam is removed and explanations are made. Several have a last minute peek at notes hoping to savor the last drop of information in hopes it will provide a needed solution. "You can begin," and the sound of flipping pages and scribbling pens/pencils fill the auditorium. And then quiet, only interrupted by sporadic page flips and tapping of pens. Quickly hands fly and questions come to my ear. Explanations are given and occasionally a quiet apology, "I'm sorry I can't answer that question." Why? Well, suffice it to say some questions were a bit leading.

The questions continue and finally people begin turning in completed exams. First one, then three, and the waves continue as each student slowly approaches the front of the auditorium scanning for any last mistakes or second guessing answers that were probably right the first time. As the end approaches, the auditorium looks rather empty. Just a handful of students remain. The last minute trickles by and all exams are collected. The exam finished, well, at least until grading begins, we carry the exam to the office for storage until tomorrow, when a bunch of instructors will sit, grade, laugh, cry, and wish that the exam had been a page or two shorter.

Mind, Vision, and a Challenge

Dr. Dale Purves delivered an excellent lecture today in MCB80 as a guest lecturer. The past few lectures have focused on vision and the biology behind it. Dr. Purves presented the class with a unique perspective. The above photo (from Dr. Purve's website), was probably one of the most intriguing shown. Believe it or not the gray at the top and the bottom are the same gray. Don't believe me? Cover up the space where the top and bottom meet and you'll see. Your finger or a pen will do just fine. See it yet? Copy the image, open it in Photoshop and use the color picker to see for yourself. The top and bottom grays are the same.

Looking at the image as is, it turns out your mind is telling you a lie! Why you may ask? Well its all about experience. Not just yours, but your father's, father's, father's experience as well. Rooted in your brain is the experience that when light shines on a surface, such as the top above, the color should have more luminance. A surface in the shadow, such as the bottom above, should appear darker than normal. What you normally see is dark gray on top and white on bottom. The odds of seeing equal grays on both top and bottom in the real world is probably quite low. Experience has taught us this. Take a picture of a dual colored cube with light shining above. Good luck getting the lighting just right such that the luminance on the top and bottom are the same. So there's my challenge. Reproduce this phenomenon in the real world - no Photoshopping. I can do a bit of that myself. I actually used Gimp, but who's asking.

Free Burrito Day!

It only happens once, well at least at this location. The new Chipotle Mexican Grill in Harvard Square (its actually in Brattle Square) had free burritos for any customer crazy enough to wait in line. Did I mention that it was a 45 minute wait? Oh yeah, it was raining and icing for about 25 minutes of that wait. Wouldn't you know, the precipitation only feel while I was standing outside. The sun was shining through the clouds by the time I entered the front door. I ordered a barbacoa burrito with pinto beans and their green chile salsa. It looks something like this. Yummy!!!
As of this post you have 15 minutes to get your free buritto. The offer ends at 8PM!!

Vision in the Boston Temple

Yesterday began with me waking up at 4am with a strong desire to attend the Boston Temple. I initially thought, they have sessions at 6:15am on Wednesdays, so I could make that session. I quickly realized that those only occur on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays. Yesterday was the first Wednesday in March. I had to work and so I would have to wait until the 8pm session, once my kids were in bed. Even making that session was put in jeopardy as Kristen called me early in the afternoon saying she was sick and needed me home ASAP.

Once the kids were asleep she gave me the OK to go to the temple. I made it to the Boston Temple around 7:45pm and quickly dressed and was ready for the 8pm session with time to spare. However, I found out I was the only patron and so they would not be holding the 8pm session. It was at this point that a temple worker and then one of the temple presidency suggested I do sealings. This is where the fun began.

I enter the room and join two other couples, both actually from my Arlington Ward. They however had no idea who I was at first, but we quickly became acquainted. After a brief time, the sealer asked about me as the others apparently knew each other quite well. Here is a paraphrase of our initial conversation.

Sealer: What do you do?
ME: I am a researcher at Harvard.
Sealer: What type of research?
ME: Vision resarch.
Sealer: What kind of vision research?
ME: I study the development and disease of the eye?
Sealer: Oh really, can you be more specific?
ME: I currently am studying the role of retinoic acid (Vitamin A) plays in retina development and disease.
Sealer: Interesting, I study light and dark adaption in the photoreceptors (part of the retina) and in particular retinol and retinal in the visual cycle at Boston University. Who do you work with?
ME: I am a postdoctoral fellow in John Dowling's lab.
Sealer: I know him quite well, we'll discuss more after we are through.

I was floored! Usually I meet someone and never get very far with my research interests. Most hear something about eye, disease, vitamin A and I get a that's interesting. I also never would have thought to meet a fellow colleague in the temple was the reason for my prompting at 4am in the morning. That night we finished the session about 10 minutes to 9pm and then I spent the next 30 or so minutes talking with the sealer, Brother/Dr Carter Cornwall. We had an amazing conversation. I am just amazed at how the Lord directs us if we but listen. Who knew at 4am that I would meet Bro Cornwall in the temple and make a wonderful contact in vision science?

As it turns out I am quite interested in his work and even had included part of his research in a draft of my dissertation, though it was nixed by a couple of my committee members. He knows my current boss, John Dowling, and Steffie, John's assistant, and many others whom I work/have worked with. I am so glad that I heeded the prompting that woke me at 4am. I look forward to meeting with Bro Cornwall in the future. This was my interesting discussion of Vision in the Boston Temple.