Botswana!!

My friends, we meet again. I returned safely to Edinburgh from my amazing ski trip and then returned safely home, although have decided I hate Chicago airport with a passion.

This past semester was amazing- full of new opportunities and adventures. I fell back in love with Scripps and CCBDC, and was sad to see my seniors graduate, although they're all off to bigger and better things!

Some of those new adventures are beginning NOW. I just got back from Catalina Island where I was doing a weeklong summer conference with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, a group that I am involved with at school. It was amazing, but also made my schedule a little hectic/ stressful.

So we got back from Catalina on Saturday, had dinner and saw a movie, and then returned to our leader's house for a sleepover. Which is when I realized that I hadn't remembered packing my passport. Which wouldn't have been a big deal, except I'm going to Africa. Today (Monday). So yesterday I went home, searched my entire room, then frantically flew back to Ontario, CA with my mom so we could look in my storage unit. Mission, accomplished, thank God. This meant that we were left in LA overnight, so we drove down to LAX, returned our rental and got a hotel for the night. My mom left at 4 am this morning, but my flight isn't until 4:45 PM tonight, so I've still got lots of time. To spend alone, at the airport :( The worst part is, my mom had a really cool birthday happy hour celebration planned for me :'( Oh well, as she said, I have the rest of my life to drink. I'm mostly sad about not getting to see anyone- I hardly had time with Dad (and it was all stress-filled) and I didn't get to see Malcolm at all... I guess God just wanted to remind me how wonderful of a family I have- everyone was super helpful with tips and organizing everything.

So anyways, I'm in my hotel room, all lonely-like, chilling until I have to go back to that awful airport and wait for my flight. I also realized I forgot to pack my Pokemon game in my haste to find my passport :( Now what will I do when I'm listening to TBTL?!

I just realized I've not even said what my flight is for! I'm going to Botswana to do vaccine research at the University of Botswana in Gaborone. I'll be working in the same lab that I worked in after freshman year. Here's a little blurb:

A new method used in this lab for making vaccines for various diseases involves the tobacco plant. Epitope sequences code for the attachments to the virus’s coat proteins that are recognized by the host animal’s antibodies. These sequences can be inserted into the sequence for the coat protein of the tobacco-mosaic virus, which is used as a scaffold to express these antigens, using PCR. This creates a vaccine that presents very few side effects for the host. This process is very inexpensive, fast, and can be done on a large scale. What I worked on in the summer of 2009 was researching epitope sequences for rabies and rift valley virus. I also assisted students in their endeavors to successfully express epitopes on the tobacco-mosaic virus for lumpy skin disease and rotavirus. This summer, I'm continuing this research. Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is a bovine disease which is similar to foot-and-mouth disease. This disease is a huge problem in areas like Botswana, where cattle is a main source of wealth, because there is no current treatment for the disease. The Vaccine Development Institute is collaborating with the University of Botswana to develop a new vaccine for LSD to prevent the economic losses caused by it. My project proposal is to design two new epitope sequences that can be used as vaccine candidates for LSD. I would then order the DNA primers necessary for the PCR process in the United States before travelling to Botswana to work with Dr. Sununguko Wata Mpoloka in the University of Botswana’s lab. While in Botswana, I would perform the gene cloning steps of the vaccine development procedure and insert this vaccine into tobacco plants to begin manufacture of the vaccine. Prior to my departure, I expect to be able to extract these vaccines and begin testing their viability as vaccines.

Haha yes, that was taken from one of my applications. At any rate, it's pretty exciting stuff.

I'm not sure what my internet will be like when I get there, but since I am at the University, I think I'll have internet at least part of the time. Au revoir, my friends, and bon voyage til we meet again.

LeeAnn xx