PossiblyModal's recent activity
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Comment on What have you made using an AI tool? in ~creative
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Comment on What have you made using an AI tool? in ~creative
PossiblyModal LinkBiological virus/plasmid design. Before you freak out, neuroscientists use empty virus shells (capsids) and add customized DNA to these shells to modify the genes of cells in mice. The custom DNA...Biological virus/plasmid design. Before you freak out, neuroscientists use empty virus shells (capsids) and add customized DNA to these shells to modify the genes of cells in mice. The custom DNA has nothing to do with virus proteins, so the viruses can't replicate. They're one time use and only work on mouse tissue.
With that preface out of the way, occasionally I'll need to use specific strands of DNA which define what kinds of cells you want your protein to be expressed in. For instance, maybe the virus can get into any mouse neuron, but I only want it to make proteins in serotonin neurons. That piece of DNA promotes the expression of my protein in serotonin neurons, and doesn't drive expression in any other kind of neuron.
This is all a long way of saying I sometimes need specific DNA promoters, and ChatGPT is great at giving me a no-nonsense table of possible promoters that I can then research more. I have yet to have it hallucinate here, but it obviously requires verification for everything it outputs, especially in my domain.
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Comment on What did you do this week (and weekend)? in ~talk
PossiblyModal LinkResearch! I'm a systems/computational neuroscience PhD candidate finishing up my thesis. I've spent the past two weeks brainstorming further analyses to do with some preliminary data, and I...Research! I'm a systems/computational neuroscience PhD candidate finishing up my thesis. I've spent the past two weeks brainstorming further analyses to do with some preliminary data, and I finally started implementing them this week. I've also been looking into various statistical analyses (if anyone has strong opinions about hierarchical bootstrapping, let me know!) and playing Returnal in my spare time. In other news, still procrastinating on learning Data Structure & Algorithms along with more common industry data science approaches to make myself appealing on the job market.
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Comment on Why is there something, rather than nothing? in ~humanities
PossiblyModal Link ParentI'm shocked to see a project I worked on getting mentioned here! All those neurons are in visual cortex (and watched some human movies at one point). I don't have much insight on the philosophical...I'm shocked to see a project I worked on getting mentioned here! All those neurons are in visual cortex (and watched some human movies at one point).
I don't have much insight on the philosophical question at hand, but I appreciate others are exploring the dataset.
There are basic ways. For instances, most scientists buy viruses through places like Addgene. They have a basic search function which will let you select cell type, reporter, etc. Some other sites are similar. However, just because you don't find a virus/plasmid that matches your needs doesn't mean it's not available. It might not be organized correctly or be obscure. That's where ChatGPT can be especially helpful to cover my bases. This is in conjunction with looking up reviews (when available) going over the latest options.
When I need to use a viral tool, there's a heavy preference to use ones already made, since making it myself requires months of work. Often times I'm aware of a promoter that would work, but I'll need a virus with all the correct pieces, so these extra constraints would make me look for more obscure options that might already exists.