User:Brian P. Josey



I work in the Koch Lab at the University of New Mexico as an undergraduate researcher. My research is focused on the superparamagnetic protein, ferritin, which I aspire to manipulate using external magnetic fields, and potentially within cells. However, I have worked on the other projects in the lab. This fall, I am also enrolled in the physics junior lab course, with a homepage located here. This lab is also taught by Dr. Koch, and hosted on OpenWetWare.

Notebooks and Internal Links
Because both the lab and one of the classes that I am taking are hosted on OpenWetWare, I have a couple of relevant pages that pertain to either the lab or class. The first is my research notebook. This notebook contains daily updates of everything that I do in the lab, and has complete notes on every procedure, subproject and idea related to my ferritin project. The second notebook is for my Junior Lab course. This notebook is only for the fall 2010 semester, and will have all of my notes I taken while in the lab, and all of my ideas about the projects that we are doing. The last page is my course page. The course page is a more organized version of my notebook, and will contain my reports on the project. While the notebook can be chaotic, and resemble a stream of consciousness, the course page will be more organized, and final. Also, during the summer of 2011, I am working at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility on an REU with Old Dominion University. There I will be keeping a wiki page with my notes, much in the same way that I did at Koch Lab.


 * Lab Notebook
 * Class Notebook
 * Course Page
 * Jlab page
 * JLab Backups
 * JLab Open Science Presentation

Contact Information
I am currently at the University of New Mexico, and working in a lab located in CHTM. I joined OpenWetWare because the lab I work in, and one of my classes are hosted on OpenWetWare. If you wish to contact me, you can either email me through OpenWetWare, email my student account at bjosey@unm.edu or post to my talk page.

Education and Internships

 * 2007- present University of New Mexico
 * 2008-2009 University of Massachusetts- Amherst- one year domestic exchange with NSE
 * Summer 2008 and 2009- Genzyme Genetics- Santa Fe, NM location
 * Summer 2011- Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility- Newport News, VA

I am currently enrolled at UNM, where I am pursuing a B.S. in physics with a minors in both math and Japanese. During my sophomore year, looking for a change in scenery, I attend UMass with the National Student Exchange. While in Amherst, I continued my studies in physics and chemistry. However, my academic interests extend beyond just physics as I have taken classes that range from physics to genetics, and from history to the relationship between democracy and dissent. Currently, I am planning on graduating in May, 2012 and then attending graduate school.

Research Interests
While working in Koch lab, I have been exposed to two different projects, one on kinesin and the other on shotgun mapping of DNA. Through these projects, I have been exposed to research in general and a couple of valuable tools, such as PCR and microscopy. Currently I am working on my own individual project. My project is to manipulate and track the movements of the superparamagnetic protein ferritin. Ferritin is a spherical protein that stores iron in the body. Structurally, it consists of a shell composed of small subunits surrounding a crystal of iron. As of writing, I have been able to use a large external magnetic field to move a large number of proteins a couple of millimeters, and I hope to move onto manipulating them on the scale of micrometers.

I am also interested in several other fields that extend beyond what I do in the lab. In terms of biophysics, I am interesting in how nerves interact with one another and how cells, tissues, and organs are able to repair themselves after injury or disease. I also have a long standing interest in astrophysics, mainly in the formation of moons around planets, how galaxies form and general relativity. Outside of the academic world, I also love hiking, reading and video games. I am also a third degree black belt in Shotokan karate and Okinawan Kobudo. I’ve done karate since I was a nine.

Publications
I don't have any yet, but stay tuned!

Useful links

 * Introductory tutorial
 * OpenWetWare help pages