The next chapter in Higgs wild ride in TX (or lack there of)
Went back to Harries last night (apparently the people that I hang out with are super cheap and don't want to pay the cover charges at the other places). I was hit on by one person, the bartender that seemed to be just a few years younger than my dad. The upshot was I only had to pay 2 dollars for whiskey and sprite triples. After I closed out my tab he gave me a beer coozie to remember him by...so TX.
On the research side of things I wrote a rough draft of my Abstract. Let me know what you think of it.
Trypanasoma cruzi the agent Chagas disease is the highest rank for disease burden estimates, in the Americas, according to the World Health Organization (Bern et al., 2011). In 2013, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention declared Chagas a reportable disease. In studying the disease ecology and distribution of T. cruzi, it is critical to examine the vector, Triatomine species (Reduviidae: Triatominae). There are seven known species of Triatoma in Texas, the most of any state (Bern et al., 2011). Understanding the phylogeny and genetic variation of these bugs in Texas could contribute greatly to the understanding of Triatoma in the U.S as a whole. To accomplish this we established a public submission process for citizens throughout TX. Each submission was photographed, identified using the 1979 Lent and Wygodzinsky key, and dissected according to our developed protocol. The DNA was extracted and a polymerase chain reaction was conducted to amplify the cytochrome B, and ITS2 genes. MEGA was used to establish the quality of the sequences, build the phylogenetic tree. Once uploaded to GenBank, this genetic information will be invaluable in identification of triatomines that are morphologically unidentifiable, and will contribute to further critical Triatoma research.
![](https://dz3ixmv6nok8z.cloudfront.net/static/img/ph-508.604ed20cffa9.gif)
Went back to Harries last night (apparently the people that I hang out with are super cheap and don't want to pay the cover charges at the other places). I was hit on by one person, the bartender that seemed to be just a few years younger than my dad. The upshot was I only had to pay 2 dollars for whiskey and sprite triples. After I closed out my tab he gave me a beer coozie to remember him by...so TX.
On the research side of things I wrote a rough draft of my Abstract. Let me know what you think of it.
Trypanasoma cruzi the agent Chagas disease is the highest rank for disease burden estimates, in the Americas, according to the World Health Organization (Bern et al., 2011). In 2013, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention declared Chagas a reportable disease. In studying the disease ecology and distribution of T. cruzi, it is critical to examine the vector, Triatomine species (Reduviidae: Triatominae). There are seven known species of Triatoma in Texas, the most of any state (Bern et al., 2011). Understanding the phylogeny and genetic variation of these bugs in Texas could contribute greatly to the understanding of Triatoma in the U.S as a whole. To accomplish this we established a public submission process for citizens throughout TX. Each submission was photographed, identified using the 1979 Lent and Wygodzinsky key, and dissected according to our developed protocol. The DNA was extracted and a polymerase chain reaction was conducted to amplify the cytochrome B, and ITS2 genes. MEGA was used to establish the quality of the sequences, build the phylogenetic tree. Once uploaded to GenBank, this genetic information will be invaluable in identification of triatomines that are morphologically unidentifiable, and will contribute to further critical Triatoma research.
![](https://dz3ixmv6nok8z.cloudfront.net/static/img/ph-508.604ed20cffa9.gif)
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
myzaree:
I'm sorry you didn't have a better time! But hey beer coozie! Better then nothing right?
evilgasm:
Thanks for the birthday wishes Higgs! ![smile](https://dz3ixmv6nok8z.cloudfront.net/static/img/emoticons/smile.0d0a8d99a741.gif)
![smile](https://dz3ixmv6nok8z.cloudfront.net/static/img/emoticons/smile.0d0a8d99a741.gif)