The New 
Florida Protein Crystals in Space Program
Last updated:  August 1st, 2008
The June 2008 Huntsville Workshop
Monday, June 23rd-  Besides Mr. Smith, the program coordinator, Mrs. Diane Conlon and 10 students from Fleming Island High School in Orange Park and Mr. Mohammed Arab and one student from Terry Parker High School in Arlington participated in the worksop.  We met at the AVIS dealership in Arlington and at the Cracker Barrel in Orange Park.  We drove to Huntsville in two vans with Mr. Arab  Mrs. Conlon  doing the driving. Here is a picture of the group taken in the Cracker Barrel parking lot.


Left to Right: Tyler Guthrie, Mr. Arab, Alen Islamovic, Lauren Youngerman, Crystal Iv, Caroline Johnston, Nikita Patel,
Jennifer Klarfield, Lauren Hinrichs, Mrs. Conlon, Ian Lozano, Mr. Smith, and Kevin Hutto
We stayed at the Bevill Center Conference Hotel
on the campus of the University of Alabama at Huntsville

Dinner the frist night was at Chili's
Mrs. Conlon was in control!

Tuesday, June 24th- Morning Activities- UAH Shelby Center


The June 24th activities were held at UAH's new Shelby Center


Wecome and Introduction by Dr. Joe Ng
UAH Structural Biology Lab

Presentation by Dr. Ed Mehan
Principals of Structural Biology

Dr. Owen K. Garriott Astronaut; SkyLab (1973) and SpaceLab (1983), and donor of Soyuz payload opportunity addresses teachers and students.

Dr. Larry J. DeLucas, Astraunaut; STS-50, describes life as an astronaut in a space shuttle microgravity environment.
Tuesday, June 24th- Afternoon Activities- UAH Shelby Center

In the afternoon, the teachers and students participated in two activities; a lysozyme protein crystallization activity and loading lysozyme samples for the Soyuz launch in October, 2008


Dr. Joe Ng introduced the lysozyme 
protein crystallization activity to the students.
 Click HERE to see pictures of the students conducting the lysozyme protein crystallization activity.

Dr. Ng describing the procedure for
loading the lysozyme  payload samples for the Soyuz launch
 Click HERE top see pictures of the students preparing the lysozyme payload samples for the Soyuz launch.
Wednesday, June 25th- Morning Activities
 
We began the day with a tour of the HudsonAlpha
Institute of Biotechnology 
Dr. Ng intoduced our tourguide, Ms. Jennifer Carden,
the "Teacher in Residence" at HudsonAlpha
HudsonAlpha is a new and unique concept
which brings researchers and private companies together
The objective is to develop the concept
where an idividual's genome/DNA may be
used to personalize medical care
We visited Open Biosystems, Inc.,
one of the companies at Hudson Alpha.
Dr. Rusia Du Breuill describes the company's operations.
Mr. Blake Simmons gave us a walking tour covering each of the steps in OpenBioSystems operations.

Wednesday, June 25th- Lunch

We met at the Bevill Center for lunch

 
 
Dr. Ng gave us a presentation about his work 
with studying the DNA of extremophiles. 
Check out Extremozyme.Inc.

One of the most interesting aspects of Tuesday's activities was to see how research organizations and priivate companies are working more closely together conducting reaearch, product development, and educatioal programs.  The Hudson Alpha Institute of Biotechnology, Open Biosystems Inc., and Extremozyme, Inc. are examples of this!
Wednesday, June 25th- Afternoon Activities
The first event of the afternooon was a tour of the UAH Structural Biology Lab
Diana Toh took our group on a brief visit of the lab spaces which included emphasis on best practicices for record
keeping during research.
Ronny Hughes of the UAH lab described the procedures used to determine the structure of a protein molecule using the xray diffractiion technique.
After visiing the UAH Structural Biology Lab, we enjoyed a few hours at the U.S. Rocket and Space Center in Huntsville
German and American rocket scientists developed the space program's early rocket technology including the Saturn V Apollo rocket in Huntsville. 
Posing in front of a SR-71 "Blackbird" aircraft, 
Alen Islamovic ponders his perfect 3 for 3 space shuttle simulator landings in a "friendlty" competition witrh Mr. Smith
Thursday, June 26th- We checked out of the Bevill Center about 8:00 am and drove back to Jacksonville arriving back at the Cracker
                                   Barrel about 7:00 pm.

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