Anuradha De Silva
Lab affiliation: Mark Lab
Degree(s) you hold: B.Sc. (Plant Biotechnology), M.Sc. (Biotechnology)
Degree being sought (M.Sc./Ph.D.): M.Sc.
Hometown (City, Country—list multiple if you have them!): Colombo, Sri Lanka
Your research project in one sentence: Using variants of ubiquitin to develop Turnip Yellow Mosaic viral resistant Arabidopsis thaliana and Canola
Degree(s) you hold: B.Sc. (Plant Biotechnology), M.Sc. (Biotechnology)
Degree being sought (M.Sc./Ph.D.): M.Sc.
Hometown (City, Country—list multiple if you have them!): Colombo, Sri Lanka
Your research project in one sentence: Using variants of ubiquitin to develop Turnip Yellow Mosaic viral resistant Arabidopsis thaliana and Canola
What do you do to relax when you have a lazy day at home?
I enjoy watching TV series, pet videos and space documentary series. Occasionally, I like to play online games with my friends or my little cousins.
What are you most excited about for 2021? Goals?
I am excited to work more with my project and planning to start plant transgenics. If possible, I am looking forward to participating in a virtual conference this year.
What techniques do you/will you most often use in your project?
I use lots of molecular biology and structural biology techniques to identify the interactions between viral inhibitors and plant proteins. I will use plant transgenic techniques for the next step of my research.
What's one silly mistake you've made in the lab?
I did a silly mistake recently and learnt a good lesson. We usually use an online Tris buffer calculator to make buffers. So, I had to make 2.5M (8.8 pH) TRIS HCl and I forgot to refresh the calculate option in the software. Then calculator displayed wrong amount of HCl but the correct amount of TRIS!! I spent more than two hours trying to realize the problem :/ Fortunately, my labmates are around.
What are any current problems you are having with your research?
I am trying to purify one difficult inhibitor protein these days and I hope it will work this time.
What did you hope to get out of grad school in the beginning compared to now?
At the beginning, I expected to learn more about plant transgenics because that’s my research. Now I work on more structural biology and physiology aspects and I have no idea what I am going to learn next. In addition, I am learning how to communicate with our collaborators and scientific community. I know all of these are a part of our training, but it is really useful to become a skilled person.
I enjoy watching TV series, pet videos and space documentary series. Occasionally, I like to play online games with my friends or my little cousins.
What are you most excited about for 2021? Goals?
I am excited to work more with my project and planning to start plant transgenics. If possible, I am looking forward to participating in a virtual conference this year.
What techniques do you/will you most often use in your project?
I use lots of molecular biology and structural biology techniques to identify the interactions between viral inhibitors and plant proteins. I will use plant transgenic techniques for the next step of my research.
What's one silly mistake you've made in the lab?
I did a silly mistake recently and learnt a good lesson. We usually use an online Tris buffer calculator to make buffers. So, I had to make 2.5M (8.8 pH) TRIS HCl and I forgot to refresh the calculate option in the software. Then calculator displayed wrong amount of HCl but the correct amount of TRIS!! I spent more than two hours trying to realize the problem :/ Fortunately, my labmates are around.
What are any current problems you are having with your research?
I am trying to purify one difficult inhibitor protein these days and I hope it will work this time.
What did you hope to get out of grad school in the beginning compared to now?
At the beginning, I expected to learn more about plant transgenics because that’s my research. Now I work on more structural biology and physiology aspects and I have no idea what I am going to learn next. In addition, I am learning how to communicate with our collaborators and scientific community. I know all of these are a part of our training, but it is really useful to become a skilled person.