Dear Sir,
I am a junior majoring in Biochemistry Bachelor at University of Oxford,
UK. I am considering of participating in a summer laboratory
work to enable myself to experience the real research environment.
Could I ask you to send me some informations on what kind of summer
laboratory courses of the duration of 2-3month comencing at the
beginning of July, please? I heard that the United States is the leading
country for biomedical sciences and would like to be enrolled
in a scheme there.
Being a Biochemistry student, I have been trained in such areas as listed
below, and am confident in those techniques.
1) uses of pH meter
2) uses of Oxygen electrode
3) protein structure investigation,
4) membrane reconstruction using semi-purified proteind (cyt-c oxidase
from E.coli),
5) Measurement of velocity of nerve pulse transmission using electrode
6) plant biochemistry and plant physiology.
7) HPLC, gel-column chromatography and affinity chromatogaraphy
8) growing E.coli, and test induction and activities of
beta-galactosidase using spectrophotometer and dye.
9) Phage complementation
In the last two projects, I was given little instruction and was trained
to design experiments by ourselves.
Along with biochemical experiments some of which are listed
above, I was also given opportunities to perform Organo-chemical and
phyisco-chemical experiments such as purification of aromatic substances
and demonstration of Raoult's law.
Before being enrolled in the Bachelors course, I passed International
Bachalaureat (IB) in June 1993. As a part of IB, I did a series of
experiments to test carcinogenicity of water-soluble and lipid-soluble
components in cigarettes using Ames' tests.
My current field of interest is neurophysiology, especially molecular basis of differentiation and
possibility of re-generation of nerve cells. Although I am a biochemist,
I prefer to work with cell biological approaches than chemical ones.
I believe laboratory work this summer will help me to train muyself in
the area of biomedical/neuro sciecences and enable me to gain deeper
understanding and experiences in the subject.
Thank you very much for your kind consideration.
Sincerely yours,
Tatsuto ISHIMARU
