Zayra Batun
Lab affiliation: Cardona Lab
Degree(s) you hold: BSc in Biotechnology
Degree being sought (M.Sc./Ph.D.): MSc
Hometown (City, Country—list multiple if you have them!): Chihuahua, Mexico.
Your research project in one sentence: CRISPRi-based silencing of Burkholderia essential genes as a biocontainment strategy.
A picture of you:
Lab affiliation: Cardona Lab
Degree(s) you hold: BSc in Biotechnology
Degree being sought (M.Sc./Ph.D.): MSc
Hometown (City, Country—list multiple if you have them!): Chihuahua, Mexico.
Your research project in one sentence: CRISPRi-based silencing of Burkholderia essential genes as a biocontainment strategy.
A picture of you:
What do you do to relax when you have a lazy day at home?
Do lazy days exist? Just kidding, I try to prepare myself a good meal, listen to some nice music while I eat, then read a book in complete silence or go for a run, a walk or just be outside (when the weather is nice enough to do it outside).
What are you most excited about for 2022? Goals?
Hopefully, I’ll see my family after a long time, I miss Mexico’s weather sooo much, so I am really excited to have more than 5ºC outside.
About my goals, I want to run at least 15k at the Manitoba marathon, and academically speaking I would like to have a deeper knowledge about my project, attend an in-person conference, apply to scholarships, and get good results for future posters.
What techniques do you/will you most often use in your project?
CRISPRi, PCR (maybe qPCR or RT-qPCR) and other molecular techniques (primer design, DNA extraction, etc.)
What's one silly mistake you've made in the lab?
Oh boy, well there is more than one, but… A few years ago, I was loading a regular gel from a PCR, and I confused the ladder with the loading dye so, when I saw my gel in the imager, all of my samples had a ladder and I saw a beautiful gel with a ladder in all the samples, I had to repeat everything again, but hey, the gel was pretty, it had a lot of bands!
What are any current problems you are having with your research?
I have not had so many problems so far but because I just started and my basic problems are tiny details that I correct in the next replicate of my experiment, or with corrections from my PI or my colleagues.
What did you hope to get out of grad school in the beginning compared to now? Or (if you’ve just begun) what are you looking forward to?
I was hoping it to be a straight line to follow, where of course you have ups and downs in your research, but you always knew where you were going. Now I realize there are a lot of factors involved, is about discovering, trying, failing and keep trying again. At this point I think I look forward to having balance in everything I do, enjoying what I do and why I do it, share my research through competitions, conferences, and other types of scientific divulgation.
Do lazy days exist? Just kidding, I try to prepare myself a good meal, listen to some nice music while I eat, then read a book in complete silence or go for a run, a walk or just be outside (when the weather is nice enough to do it outside).
What are you most excited about for 2022? Goals?
Hopefully, I’ll see my family after a long time, I miss Mexico’s weather sooo much, so I am really excited to have more than 5ºC outside.
About my goals, I want to run at least 15k at the Manitoba marathon, and academically speaking I would like to have a deeper knowledge about my project, attend an in-person conference, apply to scholarships, and get good results for future posters.
What techniques do you/will you most often use in your project?
CRISPRi, PCR (maybe qPCR or RT-qPCR) and other molecular techniques (primer design, DNA extraction, etc.)
What's one silly mistake you've made in the lab?
Oh boy, well there is more than one, but… A few years ago, I was loading a regular gel from a PCR, and I confused the ladder with the loading dye so, when I saw my gel in the imager, all of my samples had a ladder and I saw a beautiful gel with a ladder in all the samples, I had to repeat everything again, but hey, the gel was pretty, it had a lot of bands!
What are any current problems you are having with your research?
I have not had so many problems so far but because I just started and my basic problems are tiny details that I correct in the next replicate of my experiment, or with corrections from my PI or my colleagues.
What did you hope to get out of grad school in the beginning compared to now? Or (if you’ve just begun) what are you looking forward to?
I was hoping it to be a straight line to follow, where of course you have ups and downs in your research, but you always knew where you were going. Now I realize there are a lot of factors involved, is about discovering, trying, failing and keep trying again. At this point I think I look forward to having balance in everything I do, enjoying what I do and why I do it, share my research through competitions, conferences, and other types of scientific divulgation.