Bone Biology Unit, Anzac Research Institute

Last week, the entire lab had a celebration for some who had recently published papers and going for oral presentations in New Zealand. I can't wait till I have some nice data to publish and present, hopefully in a swanky international conference. Defintely feeling the pressue to get good work out since everyone in my dept. is doing such a good job.

We took some nice pics to put into the official website so I thought I'll put it up here. People-wise, it really has been great, everyone is super nice and helpful and made my transition into their workspace so easy.

Lunch Dim Sum/ Yum Cha: (Sitting L-R) Gang (visiting scientist from Ireland), Hong, Janine, Colin (my boss), Markus (new dude from Germany). (Standing L-R) Yu (my immediate senior), Mystie, Markus Seibel (HOD), myself, Robert, Colette and James

Markus wanted a nice portrait of everyone for the website. Looks nice eh? Surprising enough, it's just on a skywalk in the mall. Must be a good camera. (L-R) Gorgeous me, Mystie, Janine, Hong, Colette, Yu, Markus S, Colin, Robert, Markus and James.

Our unit has been growing alot since I came, we'll be receiving 3 new additions within the next 3 mths. Grow BBU grow!!

The Big ADDiKtion

Hi, my name is laine...and I'm a DKholic. To be a DKholic is a little bit like having an alcohol addiction, only that drinking makes people go "It's your birthday...Gonna party like it's your birthday, drink Bacardi like it's your birthday" and my K Diddy makes everyday feel like my birthday.

It's been a year since I've played the emotional Road Runner, and having not won anything more of level 2 of Super Mario Bros. by some strange luck and fate on Monkey Island, I've gone and won Donkey Kong! Kudos to me! I swear I didn't cheat. Just plain smiles and laughs, shits and giggles.

Which is better :
A)winning the lottery
B)being in love
C)being the boss

Survey says 57% chose A. 23% chose B and the rest chose C. Wanna know what I chose?

D) All "D" above

Now am I smart or am I smart? *wink*

Its on the map!

Since my daily routine consists of a daily viewing of movies and shows, be rest assured I have seen many hours of both since Ive been here. In my many hours of couch potatoness, this is a first for me. View dialogue:

The movie: Reno 911: Miami

The scene: Baddie played by Paul Rudd caught by the Reno sheriff's dept. for drug conspiring.

Baddie: "I really don't wanna take over Miami, I'm originally from around Denver. More specifically, Fort Collins. Business is easy there, really big on mushrooms and acid."

So, there's actually more than 1 person in Fort Collins!! ---- Danny and the guy who wrote the script! HAHAHAHA...

sorry babe, was too funny, couldn't resist.

Rare babykin sighted

What is a babykin you might ask. Well here is my simple explanation. Recently discovered by one young scientist in the cold rockies of North America, a non-indigenous species of mammal of primate descent given the nomenclature Honeysnookum babykin. Morphologically, the babykin resembles the modern day human with the exception of a distinct vocalization similar to a Wookie. Data suggests that this sound may be a vital mating call, with audible signals detected up to 8,000 miles away.

With little known of the biology of this creature, we can only guess its role in our ecosystem. Its been shown to possess inate skills in cuddling, hibernating and foraging. With only 1 reported case so far, it is absolutely crucial to improve efforts towards the capture of this animal such that PDA studies can be carried out to test the canoodling limits of the babykin.

The amazing race

Sometimes I feel like im in the geek edition of The amazing race. Only I'm not running around the world solving road blocks and looking for Phil, I'm somehow always running around solving one problem after another. There's beginning to be sad realisation that the rest of my 3 years in Sydney will be filled with these real-life road blocks, laced with troubleshooting and topped with a giant bright red "head-scratching" cherry. I could spend all day complaining about work, the long hours, the over-weekends, the 20min lunch breaks. But when things go right, and you see black and white evidence of the fruits of your labour, I can vouch for that feeling being the top 5 best emotions one can experience.

Today, I got fancy-scmancy X-rays of my experiments which look fantastic!..Phase 1...Complete! Now I hope my next clue box will bring me somewhere nice...and would be sweet to be Team No. 1!! Oh, and don't forget to gimme my prize!

Uncle Chew and his "Cili Padi"

When I was little, well actually even when I wasn't very little, our neighbour Uncle Chew used to call me Cili Padi, which translates to those little red chilli peppers. I dont exactly know why, maybe I was such a feisty lil brat. Tonight, as promised, I had a little house-warming dinner at my place with what little friends I had in Sydney. Spent the day before taking the train to Eastwood, 4 train stops away from Rhodes, where there are alot of asian chinese shops. Was not my day cos I had to brave the very rare torrential rain in my measly 'el-cheapo' 3 dollar umbrella whilst carrying a sackful of noodles, tofu and such. Also didnt expect my golden moon-man shoes to have miniscule decorative holes in them!! Needless to say, I sploshed my way around in wet socks all the way home.

On the menu for tonight, Mee Jawa, my very favorite dish well made by granny. Got her recipe and everything went fine, although i couldnt find Chilli boh so i had to blend my own fresh chillies. In the end, the soup I made was wayyyy too spicy, I almost killed my friends! Was too busy laughing and feeling bad I forgot to take pictures of they bewildered gobsmacked faces. To me, I give it an honest 60% (which is a bad grade for ms. i-want-to-be-perfect) but beggars cant be choosers and despite the whopping hotness, i still enjoyed my first attempt at mee jawa.

Now, got lots of leftovers for the rest of this weekend, kick back, and sip on some leftover alcohol. ahhhh......

Nudies

I bet there are alot of Aussie men and women who love to be nudies..be it on Bondi Beach or next to my pool. Cant say its a pleasant sight, unless you have 5% body fat and your flesh doesn't flop under your weight lying down. The nudies I wanna talk about are Nude mice, or scientifically nomenclatured as nu-/nu- athymic mice. These mice are "special" because they're genetically altered to lack the FOX1 gene, causing them to develop without a thymus gland. The thymus is responsible for generating T lymphocytes, essential soldiers in our immune system. That being said, these mice are extremely fragile and live their entirely lives in sterile environments. Because they have a compromised immune system, it allows us weird science geeks to implant human tumours to study their effects in the animal. Sounds cruel, but would you rather we use human test subjects? I only console myself in tha fact that every life lost adds to painting a bigger picture to understanding human cancer biology. I dont actually know why they're hairless, thought I've noticed that they sprout some sparse facial hair at about 6 weeks old.

"Howdy mate, I love my cage and my industrially processed food. Laine tries to be nice to us, I'll tell the rest not to bite" - Mouse no. 1.2.11 (not actual photo)

Ive started my work with them for about 2 weeks now, and will be working with them for the next 3 years. As important as they are for cancer research, they indeniably would have to be sacrificed at the end of experimentation, a sad ending for such an adorable creature. I've decided not to name individuals, so as to minimise the feeling of attachment to them. Having previously owned hamsters and guinea pigs, you can understand my fondness for these lil things. I never expected it to be so hard to euthanize them, despite having done so with rats back at Monash.


With every prayer before they die, I hope they involuntary involvement in my work brings some meaningful progress to human health and disease. If thats any consolation, Mom has suggested I go vegetarian once a week , great idea I must say. Maybe will save 10 chickens/yr.