Tiffany Penner
Lab affiliation: Brassinga Lab
Degree(s) you hold: B.Sc. Major (Microbiology)
Degree being sought (M.Sc./Ph.D.): M.Sc.
Hometown (City, Country—list multiple if you have them!): Morden, Manitoba
Your research project in one sentence: Functional and biochemical characterization of Legionella pneumophilia core effectors
Degree(s) you hold: B.Sc. Major (Microbiology)
Degree being sought (M.Sc./Ph.D.): M.Sc.
Hometown (City, Country—list multiple if you have them!): Morden, Manitoba
Your research project in one sentence: Functional and biochemical characterization of Legionella pneumophilia core effectors
What do you do to relax when you have a lazy day at home?
A lazy day at home means jumping on my indoor bike and doing a killer workout. After, I will treat myself to a coffee from Starbucks and spend the rest of the day watching Netflix with popcorn as a snack.
What are you most excited about for 2021? Goals?
I am super excited to continue doing super cool science, gyms opening back up and summer!!
What techniques do you/will you most often use in your project?
I have been cloning up until now, but I will soon begin observing my strains in protozoa and human macrophages by microscopy/intracellular growth kinetics.
What's one silly mistake you've made in the lab?
The first time I did a transformation and there were colonies, I was so excited that I set up the colony PCR reactions and loaded them straight onto the gel without putting them in the thermocycler first!
What are any current problems you are having with your research?
A current problem I am having is that some of the genes I am working with are very large and it is quite difficult to confirm their deletion from the genome by colony PCR.
What did you hope to get out of grad school in the beginning compared to now?
In the beginning of grad school I just wanted to do microbiology. Now, I would like to learn a variety of laboratory techniques/methods to become a well-rounded scientist. Also, I hope to become a better presenter and writer and be able to critically analyze scientific papers.
A lazy day at home means jumping on my indoor bike and doing a killer workout. After, I will treat myself to a coffee from Starbucks and spend the rest of the day watching Netflix with popcorn as a snack.
What are you most excited about for 2021? Goals?
I am super excited to continue doing super cool science, gyms opening back up and summer!!
What techniques do you/will you most often use in your project?
I have been cloning up until now, but I will soon begin observing my strains in protozoa and human macrophages by microscopy/intracellular growth kinetics.
What's one silly mistake you've made in the lab?
The first time I did a transformation and there were colonies, I was so excited that I set up the colony PCR reactions and loaded them straight onto the gel without putting them in the thermocycler first!
What are any current problems you are having with your research?
A current problem I am having is that some of the genes I am working with are very large and it is quite difficult to confirm their deletion from the genome by colony PCR.
What did you hope to get out of grad school in the beginning compared to now?
In the beginning of grad school I just wanted to do microbiology. Now, I would like to learn a variety of laboratory techniques/methods to become a well-rounded scientist. Also, I hope to become a better presenter and writer and be able to critically analyze scientific papers.