I want to first off say that I have been pretty darn busy the past year and a half. I feel bad I have left this unattended but my new goal is to recurrently add to this blog now. I recently got back from Cumberland Island with my brother and my girlfriend Brie. You can see Brie and I hanging by the marches in the thumbnail. Also looking forward to fall break as I plan to head off to Puerto Rico for a couple days with some friends.

Here’s the highlights from the past year and a half!! First, I have finally narrowed down my thesis to studying the role of SMARCB1 missense mutations in promoting oncogenesis. I am also interested in studying the mechanims by which SMARCB1-deficient tumors become resistant to proteasome inhibtors.

Excitingly, based on these ideas I actually got my NCI F31 grant awarded!! I truly have never worked so hard on something and it was such a lesson in perseverance and sticking to a goal. Even when I wanted to give up, Andy (my mentor) was so supportive and really helped me along the whole process. ALSO we finally got a project that has been lurking in revision purgatory ever since I got to the lab and now I’m co-first author! It was a lot of work but I have grown so much throughout the process, and certinaly know how to approach my next set of publications.

Today I am currently trying to get Nanopore sequencing to work so I can capture genomic mutations that are causing resistance to proteasome inhibitors. Fingers crossed it works!!

Until next time,

Garrett