in the thick of it

In the middle of my first rotation, and here are some random things I'm thinking about. 

Good Candidates for GWAS studies: attractiveness to mosquitoes, lovers of exercise, people that are chronically late for things, neat vs. messy. Random common things that must have some reliance on random common variation. I think every time researchers enroll people into a GWAS study, they should have some questionnaire that they fill out with questions like, "Do you prefer sweet or salty things?" and "People that do CrossFit are crazy: Agree/Disagree"

Genetics in general: (This goes a little along with a book i'm reading.) How much faith should/do/would/will we put into our genomes? I had a PI that was a chronic runner/biker, ate healthy, and had incredibly high cholesterol. He always said the only sure way to lower it was to take drugs for it. The "can't fight city hall" approach to genetics I guess. 

Rotation things: How do you pick a project, a lab, and a mentor that's perfect for you? I am constantly marveling that I came into grad school with a very clear idea of what I wanted to do, and after one month that idea has completely changed. More on that later, I guess? Thank goodness for open minds. 

Here are a few things I'm reading:

--- Here is a Human Being: At the Dawn of Personal Genomics by Misha Angrist. --- It's a great honest, smart account of what the questions that we'll have to ask, and the issues that we'll have to face at (to borrow the phrase) the dawn of personal genomics. I love all the personalities of the people involved. Every field has it's egos. I'm barely halfway through, but it's fun to start thinking about where I fall on the spectrum of conservative to cavalier about my own genetic material. (I would currently classify myself as---naive to a fault on the subject of open access.)

--- Garfield, D., Haygood, R., Nielsen, W. J. and Wray, G. A. (2012), Population genetics of cis-regulatory sequences that operate during embryonic development in the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus. Evolution & Development, 14: 152–167. doi: 10.1111/j.1525-142X.2012.00532.x  --- Well, number one, sea urchins. And okay I will secretly admit population genetics doesn't really get me going, usually. But it is a reminder of the amount you can do with 'big data', and what secrets that the genome reveals about itself. I'm really interested in new ways of analyzing and interpreting data we already have, and I think papers like this are great reminders of that.