Heartfelt Thank You! And Updates
The campaign finished at midnight last night, about 140% funded. Lasting appreciation and endless gratitude for all of you who pledged support.
I am in the process of getting a formal quote from a few different offsite service providers that do RADseq and genome skimming sequencing and library building. We will be equipped to do all of the alignment of sequences, data analyses and interpretation at the Desert Botanical Garden labs, once we get the data back. So far, the least expensive service totals out at about $7000 for the genome skimming and about $5000 for the RADseq process. Keeping my fingers crossed that I can find a high quality provider at a lower rate, or one that offers a graduate student discount.
Meanwhile, I'll be back in the lab at the DBG doing DNA extractions for the next several weeks. It's that phase of the PhD process that involves writing, lab work, data analysis and actually doing the science. I've taken all the classes I need, so I am a true ABD student at this point. Oddly enough, Arizona State put me in Human Anatomy and Physiology teaching when I first started, 3.5 years ago, in spite of my being a botanist. But that turned out to be a great teaching assignment, and I head back into the teaching lab in BIO202, the second semester of A and P, this Wednesday.
Look for regular updates on the entire project going forward.
Thanks again to all of the generous backers of this research!
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