Chapter 28: Taking Chances

Deirdre watched Joey as he shifted up. The BMW convertible was at cruising speed now, 65 mph. The soft top was closed as it was still early in the morning and the air was a bit chilly. Joey was outwardly calm in spite of what was riding on today's interview.

"So what's the schedule for today?" she asked to make some conversation.

"I'll deliver my talk at their lunch seminar. I guess Carol will use the time before that to grill me a little more. She said one of her students will show you around the labs."

"A guided tour? That's neat. Will there be lunch at the lunch seminar?"

"We'll stop at a deli and I'll spring for a roast beef sub. You still like them, don't you?"

"You bet. What comes after the seminar?"

"More talk I guess. Carol said you'd be welcome to join. I told her that you are good at poking holes into hypotheses."

"But I have no clues! I read up, of course, yesterday evening, but..."

Joey laughed.

"What?" she asked.

"I bet you did. Don't you always?"

"Well, I like to be prepared so I don't look clueless."

Joey snorted, clearly amused over her understatement. If anything, Deirdre had been pure Banzai when it came to reading up.

They drove in silence for a while with each of them following their thoughts. Joey was mentally going over his talk again, cramming the things he wanted to point out into his short term memory. He did not have to be nervous. He had given this presentation four times already, twice at his own school, UPenn, once at Northwestern University in Chicago, and once at Washington University in St. Louis. The latter had offered him a place in their PhD program but Joey was hesitant to accept. It was too far from Philly and his family. Still, it was a secure and extremely attractive fallback.

He knew that Deirdre's presence had to do with his desire to perform well. A lot of the plans he had been breeding over in the last days hinged on being accepted in Baltimore, plans Deirdre knew nothing about yet.

Deirdre saw his lips move silently and she understood that Joey was mentally pumping himself up for his talk. This was something she understood well. Without inner tension, without the rush of adrenaline, only the most seasoned lecturers can give an inspiring talk and Joey was just an undergraduate student. She kept silent, giving him the chance to prepare. They were nearing the Baltimore Beltway when Joey nodded once and looked to the right.

"Thanks," he said simply and Deirdre smiled back. "I'll be more talkative on the way home. I promise."

"I understand," she smiled and that was all she needed to say.

Joey clearly knew his way to the Johns Hopkins campus and he parked the fire red convertible in a staff parking lot off Madison Street. Looking at his wristwatch he saw that they had ample time and he steered Deirdre to an off-campus bakery/deli where he ordered two large roast beef subs, with mustard, onions, and pickles. He also bought two coffees, one latte for Deirdre and a pitch black, extra strong one for himself, before they strolled back to the campus.

Deirdre was immensely impressed. This was a powerhouse school, soaked in a long tradition of scientific excellence. She sadly admitted to herself that she would kill for the chance to work here one day. The Preclinical Teaching Building was in the north-eastern corner of the campus and this was where Joey led Deirdre. Once inside they took an elevator to the fourth floor.

Stepping out of the elevator, Deirdre saw the usual narrow, crammed corridors and crowded laboratories that signaled a vibrant research environment. Although it was still early students were already busy and Deirdre heard a young, female student in a shouting match with a colleague over the usage rights to an ultracentrifuge. In Parker's lab, she mused sadly, at this time of the day his two technicians would be starting the day with a coffee before the students trickled in an hour or two later. What a difference!

Joey led Deirdre into an office, a small cubicle separated from the surrounding lab by a two-inch cardboard and plaster wall. The cubicle was perhaps 6 by 7, and it was positively crammed with a desk, two chairs, and two shelves that occupied two of the four walls. The woman sitting in one of the chairs got up. She was forty, perhaps forty-two, with wire-rimmed glasses under a mop of red curls and dressed in a very Deirdre-ish way, i.e. like a bag lady.

"Hi Carol," Joey greeted the woman and Deirdre realized that she was staring at Carol Weintraub, cell biologist extraordinaire. Well, the woman was no clothes horse, that much was clear.

"Hey, Joey! You're here already. Fine! And this is your friend? Deirdre, right?"

"Yes, Professor," Deirdre started.

"I'm Carol. I'm 'Professor' for administrators and other pests. Joey tells me you're his high school lab partner?"

Deirdre nodded. "Yes, we were a good team."

"You'll graduate from HSU this summer?"

"Yes, Pr ... Carol. I applied for their PhD program, too."

"Well, good luck. I have someone to show you around while I give Joey here the third degree. Ah, there she is. Deirdre, meet Joan. Joan, give Deirdre the tour, please. Show her all the good stuff, too. Who knows, maybe we can lure her to Baltimore?"

Carol winked at Deirdre who was not sure if the last words had been just a joke. She looked at Joey for help but he only gave her a nod and an encouraging smile.

"Have fun," he said. "Don't miss my talk!"

Joan was waiting, and there was nothing Deirdre could do but follow her.

"Hey," the small Asian girl greeted her. "So you know Joey from high school?"

"Hey. Yes, we were lab partners."

"Ooh, lucky you! I tried to get my hooks into him last fall and in January when he worked here with Carol. Are you his girlfriend?"

Deirdre felt her face heat. "No, not anymore. I mean, we were together in high school but we separated. We're friends now."

"Oookay," Joan grinned. "This is where the tour begins. This is the main lab. We're between eight and ten students in here, plus two techs; so it's really crowded. We're great friends, though. Carol doesn't run a sweat shop here, she's all team spirit and such."

Deirdre looked around. She could see at least seven students at the lab benches, and they were busy. She picked up on the atmosphere and as Joan had said it was friendly, even cheerful. Joan then led her through a number of equipment rooms and Deirdre noted that there was nothing to bitch about. She hoped Joey would make it into this lab. He would be happy with the possibilities.

Then Joan sat her down on a chair next to a puny desk where Joan's lab journals and her laptop were resting on layers and layers of paper printouts, commercial flyers and other junk. For the next hour, Joan gave Deirdre a run-down of her own research project. Deirdre had a warm feeling of sympathy listening to the petite Asian girl. She really lived for her work and that was something Deirdre could relate to. Of course, having read up on the work in the Weintraub lab, Deirdre asked a few questions which started a friendly discussion. Once that wound down Joan showed her another large laboratory.

"This is Chuck's," she said, and when Deirdre looked her question, she added, "Charles Weintraub, Carol's hubby."

Of course! Charles M. Weintraub, another hot name in Molecular Biology. Joan led the way.

"Oh, there he is. Chucky, this is Deirdre."

The fifty-ish, grey-bearded man looked like a Hawaiian Santa Claus wearing a loud, short-sleeved shirt over a great belly. He gave her a friendly smile.

"Carol told me of your visit. You're Joey's friend, right? She tells me you're some kind of molecular modeling guru?"

Deirdre again felt her face heat. Why had Joey spread such a rumor? "No, no guru, really. I just like bioinformatics and I sometimes tinker with CloseFit and ModelP and such for fun."

"Fun? That stuff has my best student almost in tears! Wait, when's Joey's talk? In fifteen minutes, right? No sense starting anything before that. Could you drop by after his talk for a half hour and help my student? She's got this protein which is essential for myeloma growth. The fruit fly protein was crystalized four years ago, and Sally wants to fit the human peptide sequence into the fly structure. Could you have a look and see where she's screwing up?"

"I'd love to," Deirdre beamed, meaning it. "I don't know how much I can do in a half hour, though. What sort of hardware do you have?"

"We have a twelve-node cluster of QuadCore MacPros for 3D imaging," Weintraub said casually, and Deirdre's eyes lit up.

"Wow," she said softly. "I guess I won't have to watch progress bars here."

Weintraub chuckled. "The geneticists have it Friday to Monday for their damn linkage studies, but during the week it's ours. Can Sally bring you back here after the lunch seminar?"

"I'll love to help," Deirdre answered with a smile. To have such raw processing power at her fingertips, albeit for a few minutes, was an exciting prospect for her. On her laptop, although brand-new, those 3D rendering applications took more time.

"Great! So let me show you the way to our seminar room."

Chuck Weintraub led the way with Joan and Deirdre following. The seminar room doubled as the department library and Deirdre looked around with interest. She almost felt giddy seeing all the top journals lined up on the shelves.

"Wow," she said again.

All around her people sat down in their chairs and unpacked their sandwiches. The smell of coffee permeated the room. Then a side door opened and Carol Weintraub led in Joey. Joey smiled at Deirdre before he remembered to toss her the roast beef sub, still wrapped in aluminum foil. She caught it mid-air to the snicker of Joan and unwrapped it.

Meanwhile, Joey hooked up his laptop to the projector and woke it from sleep mode. The first slide of his presentation showed on the wall and Carol Weintraub clapped her hands once. The room went silent after a few seconds.

"Folks, our seminar speaker today is Mr. Joseph G. Di Rosa who mostly goes by the name Joey." There was a smatter of laughs. "Joey is currently finishing his undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania where he majors in Biomedicine. Today, he will present his work on the genetic manipulation of Trypanosoma cruzi, a protozoan parasite responsible for Chagas' Disease in South America. I may add that his results will appear over his own name in Science in a month or two. We hope to recruit him to our PhD program so I ask you to keep any stupid questions to the necessary minimum."

Again, people laughed softly.

"Okay, Joey, they're all yours," Carol ended the introduction and Joey stepped in front of the audience.

"First, I would like to thank all of you for having me here but also for your willingness to consider me for your prestigious PhD program," he began.

Then, without further ado, Joey launched his talk. Deirdre knew enough about the organism with which Joey was working but she was impressed by his skillful introduction. He was straight to the point, only giving the information needed, and he spoke in short, crisp sentences. The main part, his results, was presented with only a few references to the technical difficulties he'd had to overcome. Towards the end he gave his results a critical review, mentioning limitations and caveats. He wrapped up after just twenty-five minutes to a benevolent applause from the audience. Deirdre found herself beaming proudly as Carol stepped to the front again.

"Thank you for a concise and informative talk, Joey," she said, and Deirdre nodded emphatically. "Are there questions?"

The Q&A lasted for another twenty minutes. In her opinion Joey handled himself well though, admitting to yet unanswered problems but pointing out the limited amount of time he'd had. That was the point after all. He was just an undergraduate and he managed to drive that fact home with the faculty members and students.

The fact that Joey managed to wolf down his sandwich while answering all the questions brought back bittersweet memories to Deirdre. He had always been able to eat, she remembered, even under stress or when he was busy.

Finally, the library emptied. Chuck Weintraub quickly informed Carol and Joey of the plans he had with Deirdre and Joey smiled at her which confused her a little.

Sally, or Sarah Eldridge, was a big girl, as tall as Deirdre, but perhaps twice as big around. Yet, she waddled briskly in front of Deirdre to lead her into what was labeled 'Imaging Room'. Deirdre saw two high powered microscopes to the right. On the other side a robust shelf extended all along the wall, with a long line of MacPro computers, in their distinctive aluminum, cheese grater design. There were also two 24" iMacs which served as terminals for the cluster and Sally made Deirdre sit in front of the left one.

Deirdre saw the window of the CloseFit software open, already recognizing the version as being the second-to-last. It would not matter because the only changes in the last version were in the GUI. Sally had tried to fit the human protein sequence of amino acids into the fruit fly-derived structure, but Deirdre saw immediately that it would not work. She opened the application folder to see what they had. ClustalW was there and she launched it.

"Can you show me the sequence files?" she asked Sally who pointed her to the folder she needed.

The sequence comparison and alignment took less than a second. Deirdre scanned the alignment with her eyes. It really looked like a good match for most of the two sequences but there was an irregularity near the beginning.

"That sequence, is it from the Human Genome Project or did you verify it?" she asked Sally.

"Genome Project, but we did partial sequencing for confirmation."

"You have the original sequencer files?" Deirdre shot back. She was losing herself in the problem already, something that happened all too often when she 'tinkered' with bioinformatics tools.

Sally had to retrieve the sequencing data from her lab computer. She came back a minute or two later with a USB thumb drive which she popped into the port. Deirdre nodded and loaded the original data sets. Scanning the colored peaks and lines she mumbled the sequence to herself and compared it to the output file that she had opened, too. She did not even notice Chuck Weintraub who had entered the room and was watching her. She was too busy reading the DNA sequence and translating it simultaneously into the corresponding amino acid sequence. This was all automatic for her, the base triplet code was almost an integral part of her thinking.