Fourth Interview Questions

-What are the main mechanisms that researchers have found that enable extremophiles to persist in the environments they do?
-What enzymes specific to extremophiles have been of particular interest in biotechnology lately?
-What specific methods have researchers seen thermophiles use? Psychrophiles? Acidophiles? Halophiles?
-What methods do extremophiles use in protecting their proteins that differ from those used in protecting their genetic material?
-How can DNA and protein repair mechanisms found in most extremophiles be utilized in biotechnology?
-What are the main divisions of biotechnology at the forefront today?
-Which divisions can new developments in extremophile research benefit the most?
-What challenges are biomedical researchers facing that could be addressed with extremophile research?
-How can halophiles be used in biofuel generation and bioremediation?
-What challenges face industrial biotechnology?
-What are purple-membrane films?
-What are their biotechnological uses?
-How are they obtained from halophiles?
-What biotechnological applications for extremophiles that are resistant to radioactivity exist or are being developed?
-How exactly is Deinococcus radiodurans being used in bioremediation?
-What biotechnologies involve extremely low temperatures?
-Have there been any advancements in bioinformatics that involve or could involve extremophiles?
-How can extremophiles be used for long-term information storage in the future?
-How can the solvent tolerance of certain extremophiles be used in improving hospital sanitation?
-How are extremophiles being utilized in the development of antibiotics and diagnostic tools?
-How extremozymes improve food science, particularly wine and cheese making?

Third Interview Questions

Here are my 10+ questions.  

1. What is the most useful application for extremophile research in addressing global climate change?

2. What are the most pressing problems in the addressing of global climate change today (roadblocks, etc.)?

3. How can these problems be solved?

4. What is it about extremophiles that makes them particularly useful for the aforementioned purpose?

5. What possibilities are there in bioremediation?  How about in hydrocarbon pollution clean-up in particular?

6. Which extremophiles in particular that have proved to have potential in such advancements?

7. How could extremophiles be used in biofuel production?

8. Which extremophiles in particular that have proved to have potential in this field?

9. What do we need to understand more in order to tackle global climate change?

10. How could extremophile research contribute to the development of this understanding, perhaps of a clearer global climate model?

11. What extremophiles show particular interest in this development?

12. How far has extremophile research come? Is there is still a long way to go before any of it can be applied?

13. What papers or journals you would recommend I use to stay up to date on developments involving the application of extremophile research to addressing global climate change?

14. What people or organizations in particular are involved in work related to my senior project?

Second Interview Questions

1. Who is your mentor and where does he work? 
Manjula Gunawardana is my mentor and he is a senior research scientist at the Oak Crest Institute of Science in Pasadena.

2. What five questions will you ask him about his background?
1. What degrees do you currently hold and where did you acquire them?
2. When and how did you become employed by Oak Crest and why did you decide to continue your work here in particular?
3. When did you become involved in research, how, and what were you working on?

4. What excites you about the research you do?

5. Within microbiology, what fields would you say are the most active, and where do you see microbiology in general heading for in the future?

Blog 4: Interview Preparation

1.  Who do you plan to interview?  Why?

I plan to interview Dee Ann Matthews (a.k.a. Mrs. Matthews).  Before becoming a teacher at iPoly, she received a Ph.D. at UC Irvine in Neurobiology and took part in research primarily dealing with the hippocampus.  She has so much advice to give, especially when it comes to research.  From what I've heard, research can be a dog-eat-dog world, and I'd like to get more insight into why that is and how I can deal with it.    

2. You have to ask 5 questions.  What additional questions do you plan to ask?   

What was the first research project you participated in, and how did you become involved? 

What exactly did participating in that project entail?

How did you first become interested in the hippocampus?

How did your research regarding that region of the brain turn out?

What part of your education prepared you the most for research?

What kept you going during the harder times?

Why did you decide to get your Ph.D. in Neurobiology?  

What was acquiring that Ph.D. like?

What general advice can you give me as I become more involved in research?

What do you know about extremophile research and its general standing in the science community?