[Nfb-science] Introduction

Sun Aug 15 03:26:56 UTC 2010

Wow, you guys, this is why this list is so cool. Everyone is doing so  
many amazing science things. I love reading about it, and as another  
said on this thread, I am glad to see other biologists here!

Ronit - I would love to hear more about your work as a genetic  
counselor. It's something that my genetics class has been talking  
about and sounds so fascinating and interesting. I'd love to hear what  
you do/don't like in the job, what it's like, if there are any  
particular challenges you face and just overall learn more about it!

Chrys

Quoting Ronit Ovadia Mazzoni <rovadia82 at gmail.com>:

> Hi Stephanie,
> I think your research is really fascinating. My name is Ronit, and  
> although I am not in a lab, I do work in science. I"m a genetic  
> counselor, I explain genetic concepts to patients who rae pregnant  
> or who have a family history of a genetic disorder. I had to do alot  
> of science in undergrad and grad school. Let me know if I can be of  
> any assistance to you.
> Ronit
>
> On Aug 14, 2010, at 10:20 AM, Stephanie Hirst wrote:
>
>> Hi, nice to hear from you.  I'm also visually impaired and working in the
>> biomedical sciences.  I have about 20/400 visual acuity, with about 20/240
>> corrected.  I'm currently wrapping up my second year in grad school at
>> Vanderbilt University. I did try my hand at organic chemistry and
>> biochemistry, but now I find myself working in a computational biology lab
>> doing protein structure prediction. I'm really excited there's another
>> biologist here!  It seems the vast majority of people on this list work in
>> more physics, computer science, etc.  What kind of research do you do
>> exactly?  Where do you work? This is really exciting!
>>
>> I think I can understand how hard this will be.  Are there ways for you to
>> hire assistants/staff to help you with interpreting some of the data?  How
>> about shifting focus to the more bioinformatics/computational biology
>> aspects? One reason why I like what I'm doing is because I can still think
>> about biologically relevant problems but don't exactly have to have good
>> vision to do it. It is hard though because I do structural biology, which
>> requires looking at models etc. Other people in our lab work on
>> cheminformatics and QSAR analysis for predicting active compounds from high
>> throughput screening (for drug discovery). For these, I don't think you need
>> to see as much. We do a lot of programming and scripting, but it's all to
>> the same end of forwarding biomedical research.
>>
>> Although Im only a graduate student, I've found that people (in academia
>> anyway) are pretty accommodating as long as you can show that you're capable
>> of doing science and have good ideas and are very motivated. There are often
>> ways to work around the disability. And the NIH seems to be very eager to
>> give money to disabled people to do research, including money for special
>> visual aid equipment, travel, etc.
>>
>> Good luck, and maybe we can keep in touch!
>>
>> ~ Stephanie HIrst
>>
>> On Sat, Aug 14, 2010 at 12:06 PM, Robert Jaquiss  
>> <rjaquiss at earthlink.net>wrote:
>>
>>> Hello John:
>>>
>>>   Welcome to the list. You might want to check out the site:
>>> http://www.blindscience.org
>>>
>>> This site contains an assortment of information for students, teachers etc.
>>> Have a great day.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>> Robert
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "John D. Trawick" <jdtat at cox.net>
>>> To: <nfb-science at nfbnet.org>
>>> Sent: Saturday, August 14, 2010 2:46 AM
>>> Subject: [Nfb-science] Introduction
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>> Hope that this isn't too long of an intro. I am not blind but have dry
>>>> macular degeneration. Though diagnosed 'officially' only a couple  
>>>> years ago
>>>> I can trace my first symptoms back about 20 years when I was in my mid
>>>> 30s--back then I realized that I couldn't see chemiluminescence on Western
>>>> blots that the lab tech I worked with could see clearly (this is a dim,
>>>> green glow that we used to expose to Xray film before digital imagers).
>>>> Today, I have a central blind spot in my formerly dominant right eye and
>>>> that eye's visual acuity is 20/70 to 20/100 with correction. That little
>>>> blind spot has an large effect in impairing function--reading  
>>>> with my right
>>>> eye is out unless I use a 3x magnifier. My left eye is  
>>>> correctable to 20/20
>>>> but I can tell that contrast and fine detail have some problems and dark
>>>> adaptation is slowly getting worse. All this really isn't so bad; I am
>>>> supplementing my bifocals with a hand held magnifier that makes  
>>>> most reading
>>>> easier and fine print possible to read.
>>>> The reason why I am joining this group is that I am a professional
>>>> scientist with lab and bioinformatics experience. While I am sure that
>>>> various adaptations will keep me functioning for the foreseeable future I
>>>> want to be prepared because this is a progressive condition. Also, I would
>>>> like to learn more about others coping with visual impairments and science
>>>> including issues such as remaining gainfully employed...
>>>> Are there folks here with similar experiences?
>>>> John
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>
>>>
>>>
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>
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http://chrysanthymum.blogspot.com