Life: Winter break. Bye, Bye, 2020.

 Winter break is the time to look back this year and plan for the next year.

2020 was a highly unusual year. Due to Coronavirus, our university was closed for 2.5 months (March-May). Although it did flatten the curve, Coronavirus lingered during the Summer. As winter came, COVID19 again started marching on. Vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna recently became available to frontline healthcare workers, nursing home residents, caretakers, and first responders.

Remote work is encouraged, and mask and social distancing are enforced in the campus. 

That is where we are now.

I never had an official diagnosis for COVID19. But I had suspicious and persistent chest cold during quarantine, also had one day in Summer I felt sick with headache and stomachache, both of which are quite rare for me. I suspect they might have been a mild form of COVID19, and if so, I'd probably be okay and would live through this pandemic. 

I'll still be cautious. Report said a few days ago that a Japanese politician, age 53, died of COVID19 after 2 days of feeling ill. He was on his way to get PCR test for COVID19 diagnosis when he collapsed. They are still investigating exact cause of his death (pneumonia? Pulmonary embolism and stroke? Coronavirus can affect endothelial cells and blood coagulation.) Stories like this should make people act carefully. 

Or, perhaps, more famous people need to die or something for the virus to be taken seriously? Some COVID19 deniers' responses are truly dumbfounding.

I'll wear mask, wash hands, keep social distance anyhow, and will take the vaccine when it  become available some time next year. 

I am one of the fortunate people who did not get seriously sick in 2020. I am also one of the fortunate who got to keep his job thus with minimal financial impact. In 2020, I wrote 4 grants and participated in another. I published one original research, one review, and had one perspective manuscript accepted. Since lab work is slowed down, I initiated a collaboration project with a bioinformatics expert. We found something interesting and a manuscript is about to be sent out. I'll see if we can get by with this type of projects with minimal lab work for a time being.

Many things in life is beyond my control. I can still choose what to focus on my thinking and efforts. Need to think to get it going strong in 2021 and beyond.

Dance: Online Tango events, and upcoming "2nd Holiday Tango weekend (12/19/2020)"

 Tango is an antithesis of social distancing.

After March 2020 to present, all milongas around me are shut down. "Forget it", until vaccine is ready and pandemic is contained.

Indeed, Operation Warp Speed did an incredible job, developed 95% effective mRNA vaccines. Beginning 2 days ago (12/15), frontline healthcare workers are getting the vaccine in this state. Previously I predicted that my turn would probably be March or April. I'd just wait, while attempting to stay healthy.

 That would mean, it will still be some time until we can safely return to milonga. 

In the meantime, people are attempting something new.

One of the attempts is online Tango shows.

I checked out Dallas student show on 12/5. It was interesting. It was a mix of pre-recorded introductions and (mostly) live performances. With introductions, it was far more informative than regular stage shows. The performers were wearing black masks with some bling. Very 2020.

In the future, when they reenact 2020, they would use masks of all kind. Personally I've only used blue surgical masks and have not gotten fancy ones with bling. Maybe I should get one?

In the online show format, actually, we cannot tell if a performance is live or not. Will splicing and editing of dance performance become more popular? Perhaps.

Glenn Gould (1932-1982) was a classical piano genius, particularly famous for his J.S. Bach interpretations. He advocated editing of musical recordings over live performances, and it was met with skepticism and resistance. But it was 55 years ago and he was ahead of his time. Now, editing is a common practice in almost anything.

We scientists are strictly forbidden from arbitrarily editing data, and data manipulations are scrutinized, as such manipulations can easily skew the results, interpretation, and message. But we are bound by mother nature, which is an exception among many fields of human arts. In a creative arts catering to human bodies and minds, scientific rigor is not required, or is even a hindrance.

That said, how about dancing? Can we edit and create a "perfect" dance on film? Sounds like it is also a common practice, Is it not?

In the world of edited films, we can ground ourselves with live performances.

Online Tango shows are a format between live and edit. You can control how much percent is live, and how much is pre-recorded. There would be a Goldilocks zone in the mix somewhere for entertainment of viewing pleasure.
 

There is an upcoming professional Tango show on line (zoom) this Saturday (12/19/20). I've got a ticket ($20 via paypal) and am looking forward to it.

 

link to the facebook event page, "2nd Holiday Tango weekend"

https://www.facebook.com/events/826767394816089?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22mechanism%22%3A%22calendar_tab_event%22%2C%22surface%22%3A%22bookmark_calendar%22%7D]%7D

"We present a spectacular New Show: from Buenos Aires "Amores Tangos", the Argentine Tango couple Patricio & Eva, Celina & Hugo, Dallas Tango Femme Team, also the singers Limon Garcia & Cucuza Castiello and more…"

Life: Thanksgiving 2020, thoughts on covid19 vaccine

 Thanksgiving off comes with 4-day long weekend. I was working out, knowing my body would sore.

With shopping gimmick like Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday, it is easy to spend. 

Yet, it would be wise to use some time to "make" something, like give a thought on ongoing projects, next project, upcoming grant writing, predicting the future and plan accordingly.

Speaking of the future, recent news was about COVID19 vaccine.

Assuming that they would make the vaccine available in a phased manner, the time I'd be getting the vaccine would be March or April, 2021.  I better stay put for some more months.

They are still discussing the order and prioritization. But if we follow England's guidelines, the first group to get the vaccine would be healthcare workers and high risk people (e.g., people in nursing home). The second group may be first responders, followed by other high risk people like diabetics and cancer patients, then essential workers. They will try to cover essential or vulnerable components of the society first. Then, starting older "higher risk" people (70+, 60+, 50+, etc), they would try to cover broader population. There will be debates if young people are to be included.

"Even if something is wrong with the vaccine, they would figure it out by our turn of March or April, so we should be okay. But we may lose healthcare workers and first responders. Ouch." ....these were some of inconsiderate jokes we were making. Well, in some cases, concerns and worst-case scenarios are expressed in the form of jokes. How serious we take the jokes is up to each of us, though.

Edward Jenner tested out his smallpox vaccine on his gardener's young kid. In the movie "Contagion", vaccine developing scientist tested it out on herself. The doctor pushing the hypothesis of H. pylori bacteria as a cause of GI ulcer drank the bacterial culture himself to see if he gets ulcer. 

These are beautiful (?) tales of scientists' selfless dedication. However, in real world situation, the dedication very often go to their immediate research subjects only. Scientists are naturally critical and cautious, and tend not to jump on someone else's bandwagon easily. As we are not working on the vaccine ourselves, yeah, we are like, we will see.

The clinical trial results for mRNA vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna) were impressive 95% effective. Adenovirus-based AstraZeneca vaccine is awaiting data re-evaluation. Considering that conventional flu vaccine is effective by 50-70%, the new vaccines hold high promise.

I do hope the vaccine to work. I am not anti-vaxxer and am looking forward to getting the covid19 vaccine, as long as it is proven reasonably safe and effective, and the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. 

If the vaccine work as in the clinical trials, this covid19 mess would be over by the summer/fall of 2021. That is nice.

[Dr Jenner performing his first vaccination on James Phipps, a boy of age 8. 14 May 1796]

(from wikipedia)

Personally, I don't care if anti-vaxxers or other people with their own reasons choose not to take the vaccine. Doctors have learned not to push medical treatments on religious refusers, even if they are life-saving ones such as blood transfusion. I'll take the same approach here. The religious refusers live their conviction and get consequences. That is fine by me. Just don't force the anti-vaccine or other poor belief on others. 

As I am not an epidemiologist nor a public health officer, I follow my personal tendencies of libertarian's and will not try to sell the notion of the herd immunity to anti-vaxxers whom I don't even know. I'll leave the job to other educators and will mind my own projects.

Science/Life: Dr. MY's alumni symposium in Kyoto Japan, postponed

 Dr. MY is an award-winning molecular geneticist/biologist, and one of the few elite scientists elected as foreign member of the Royal Society. His lab has been going strong in Kyoto then in Okinawa for over 40 years. He was my graduate advisor. 

On Sept. 13, 2019, I got an email notifying all his former lab members that there would be a symposium and celebration for his 80 years birthday, which is a distinctive age in Japan (傘寿).

The alumni symposium and celebration was planned to be held in Kyoto Japan, on April 2021. The email was requesting us to mark the calendar and make arrangements. It would be a nice opportunity to visit Japan.

Then 2020. Corona came. 

Now is November 2020. I was beginning to wonder if the symposium would take place in zoom or in other ways.

Currently Japan is like a closed country to visit from the USA. Beforehand or on arrival, visitors have to arrange a place to stay for 14 quarantine days and a method to reach there from the airport without using a public transportation like train or bus. On arrival in the airport, visitors need to take a PCR test for SARS-COV2 and wait for negative result. It takes 1-3 hours wait now, they say. Although the PCR wait time is much shortened compared with some months ago, it is still so much trouble.

But currently the USA is in the middle of poorly-controlled COVID19 pandemic. Even in this small state of Oklahoma, over 2000 new patients are reported daily in this past 3 days, and ICU beds are getting full. As I work in the hospital complex, this is occurring in my workplace neighborhood and not in a faraway land. I saw COVID19 patients among Facebook friends, and even report of death. With this "result", Trump's poor virus response seems to be a part of reasons of his defeat. 

I cannot complain about Japan's disease control policies being cautious.

 On November 9, 2020, I got a follow-up email from the organizers. "Postponed by 1 year".

It is going to be 2022. Sure.

Pfizer's promising COVID 19 vaccine news came only a few days ago, and this morning I watched the vaccine developer talking about distribution plan and timeframe. We are not yet certain if Tokyo Olympic is actually going to be held on 2021. Still so much uncertainties. I'll just live on with caution, though.

[11/12/2020 data of Oklahoma. We did flatten the curve by the lockdown in March-May. But after the reopen, COVID19 has just been going around steadily. Recent surge seems to be due to the ice storm and/or Halloween parties.]

Science/life: Latest COVID19 treatment guidelines. So much change from early 2020

Sometimes our Department of Medicine chair sends us COVID19 updates.

A few weeks ago the update was about hospital surge plans; how we handle increasing number of COVID19 patients, where the patients to be directed, and evaluation standards to follow.

This morning the update was about current COVID19 patients treatment.

In its version 8, the procedures changed so much from early 2020, when no one knew effective treatment. Since then, there have been lots of misinformation with or without political intents or ignorance. This change/progress in medicine was earned at the cost of many patients' lives worldwide.

The update seems to follow current (Oct 2020 version) NIH guideline rather closely. 

Antibiotics and Hydroxychloroquine are gone. Instead, after pregnancy and oxygen requirement evaluation, antiviral med Remdesivir (now FDA-approved COVID19 medicine) and anti-inflammatory steroid dexamethasone are employed for oxygen-required patients. Convalescent plasma application may be evaluated, although this is still somewhat experimental. For non-oxygen-requiring patients, treatments are for symptoms.

Recent decrease in COVID19 death rate may owe these changes in treating ICU/hospital-admitted patients. We still continue to play Russian Roulette with COVID19, though.

Keep looking at what really is going on. 

Tomorrow is the day of election in the US. Perhaps, you need to consider how this pandemic has been handled.

 NIH guideline Oct2020

https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/therapeutic-management/

Life: Ice storm 10/26-28/2020

 We had a weather forecast of freezing rain or ice storm on Monday--Tuesday (10/26-27/2020). Last week they said it would come. 

And it did.

Today is Wednesday (10/28/2020). Outside is freezing rain. I see a lot of frozen and downed trees. I'm writing this blog in my office at my worksite. My home has no power, no AC, and no internet/phone. Good thing gas and water are still on. But I'd rather show up in my worksite (where power, AC, internet are available) than in my home.

Yesterday I was moving some downed tree limbs from our driveway with my neighbor. They were large ones with 4-5 inches diameter. My forearms sore.

This is early for winter. Trees still had many leaves and were not ready for freezing weather yet. When tree limbs and branches got frozen and come down, they come down with electrical cables, causing power outage. Wide range of my city is out of power. I'm sure electrical company people are working hard. I am hoping the power is back on soon.

Without power and AC. the room gets cold (about 40F/4C this morning). Three things I found most useful were; (1) selk bag (or equivalent, human-shaped sleeping bag), (2) Yutampo (a traditional Japanese winter heater, a plastic or metal water tank you add hot water in), and (3) LED lantern and flashlight for camping. Right. It's basically camping indoors.

Also, my cat was a good heat source as well.

This kind of power outages occur like once a year around here. It should be over soon in a few days, depending on the electrical company's work. It is a change in the pace of everyday life. Indeed, last night there came some thoughts that I usually do not think of. Such occasions can be rather precious.

                                               Trees are messed up everywhere

No go for this path

PS 

We sent the grant application (due 10/27 Tue) a few days early on 10/22 Thu. Glad we did. No need to panic over this disruption by weather. Also glad we sent out a manuscript on 10/23 Fri.

 

Science/Life: Brain work is like working out in a gym

 The grant was uploaded to the grant website on Sunday after final readout. On Monday we started internal routing. During the routing process, participants (collaborator, co-investigator) confirm participation and check accuracy.

Tuesday afternoon the routing paperwork reached to Office of Research Administration (ORA) in our institute. The ORA will oversee research in general, including grant submission process. All University grant applications have to go through the ORA.

On Wednesday we had weekly zoom lab meeting. I presented an update and planning for my research. As there was a 5 months COVID break for the lab meeting, my update was covering this past 10 months, plus future plans. Preparing for the meeting was like having a strategy session, and it was good.

I like working on strategies. Like policies, strategies guide us and tell us what we need to do and what we should not do. Make things easier.

Also Wednesday an ORA officer checked the grant's budget and files, and pointed out some places to fix. We fixed these, uploaded new files, and notified the officer.

These are some of the things we do. Just minding our business.

There was little movement on the grant on my front today (Thursday). They are working on it.

As the grant is almost out, I started organizing next, upcoming things. There is a short writing with Oct.31 due. There is a manuscript to write. We have the datasets, some of the figures, conclusions and rough draft. I want to submit it to a journal in 3-4 weeks. There is a paperwork to file, so that we can send some mice to collaborator for analysis, and so on.

 I found "multitasking" is not very efficient form of working for me. Focusing on a limited number of projects (like assembling grant, writing a manuscript, etc) and doing one or two things at a time is preferable to juggling too many projects in a half-baked manner. 

Brain work is like working out in a gym. You can do so much in a day, and you can get tired. Time and energy seem like resources that I want to allocate wisely.   

Science: Grant preparation Sept-Oct 2020

 I skipped blogging for a while (about a month). The reason being, some seasonal allergy (how annoying) and grant preparation this past one and a half month. 

This federal grant will be awarded to a collaboration project between cancer researchers and aging researchers. My ongoing project seems to be a good fit. It took us some time to obtain pilot results and assemble a team of researchers from Stephenson Cancer Center (where I work) and the Reynold Oklahoma Center on Aging and the Nathan Shock Center in Oklahoma City (one of strategic centers for aging-related studies, funded by National Institute on Aging [NIA]). 

A part of my research led me to Alzheimer's disease study in this past 3-4 years. I want to investigate functional aging (behavior/cognition) in my model mouse. But functional aging (behavior/cognition) assays are a specialty for aging or neuroscience or traumatic brain injury researchers (....maybe for developmental biologist, too?) Anyhow we cancer researchers hardly do the assays. We usually see histopathological changes (pre-cancerous lesions and actual cancers) and molecular signaling behind the pathology, but physiology or higher-order function like cognition do not always get close attention. Depending on expertise and research field, we researchers tend to see different things.

Although I do intend to be able to read papers and evaluate the results, I am not planning on re-doing graduate school all over to study aging research methodologies. Instead, we collaborate with the pros. Indeed it is good to have experts around.

On this past weekend, version 5 of the proposal was sent to collaborating professor and institutional editor for checkup and edit.

Today I was working to finalize the budget. Calculating people cost, facility cost, research reagents and supplies, cost for outsourced sample analysis, cost for major equipment,....I got to make sure the project gets done.

The internal due date is 10/22. We are planning to start routing the whole package around early next week (10/12-13). We are collecting documents and letter of support (LOS) from collaborators/co-investigators, and have begun to upload necessary files to the grant site.

We want to send the grant some days early. So we can have extra time, even if I or a collaborator catch COVID19 tomorrow and it delays the process. 

Even the virus denier/downplaying president caught the virus. The virus going around is real. We got to be careful.

Science/Life: NCI online conference for cancer chemoprevention; Black Panther dies

 On Thursday and Friday (8/27-28) there was online conference for cancer chemoprevention, organized by NCI (National Cancer Institute).

As COVID19 shows little sign of dying down in the US as a whole, at least in the near future online conference will be mainstream method for scientific meeting. Apparently, format for online conference has not been finalized and the meeting organizers are still experimenting how to do it. 

For example, we saw different screen configurations in Thursday and Friday. There were about 20 panel/presenters plus 4-5 organizers, and uncertain numbers of attendees. Most people's mike and video were off. Questions by attendees are sent by chat to session chair/organizer, and handled. What we saw was presentation screen and attendees' name-only small screens.

It was not with Zoom, but with Cisco Webex. The use was intuitive enough at least for just attending. For presenters, there were a few occasions the presentation did not take off smoothly on day 1, but by day 2 organizers figured it out and it was mostly fixed. 

Just like in real conference, I was on and off the conference presentations, listening to presentation of particular interest. Overall it was very good learning and catching up opportunity for the latest topics of cancer chemoprevention studies in the US.

A large segment was dedicated to immunoprevention and cancer vaccines, showing current trend. "Cancer and inflammation" relation is already a common sense topic among cancer chemoprevention researchers, but translating it to clinic is ongoing. Organ-wise, lung, colon, and pancreas seem to be presented most.

I do not know if online conference is going to replace conventional meetings or not. It seems online conference cuts a lot of human interactions and opportunities to know colleagues, and it is a shame.

Well, we will see.

On Friday evening, there came a news of the death of Chadwick Boseman, best known as Black Panther actor. He died of colon cancer at age of 43.

I rented 4K UHD version of Black Panther (2018) and watched it, for a tribute to the actor. 

My obvious response; "I cannot believe this guy would be dead in 3 years".(The movie was filmed in 2017).

It was another cancer death. It was a sobering reminder of how fragile life can be even in his early 40's. We never know what kind of fight a person is fighting, even for an actor in glorified superhero movies. 

RIP.

PS  Also on Friday our new paper was published. I'll write about it later.

Dance: West Coast Swing community saying farewell to Angel Figueroa

Angel Figueroa was a major contributor to West Coast Swing dance community, as a dancer, teacher, coach, event coordinator, judge, etc. He was coming to some events in Tulsa as head judge. Although in recent years many professionals choose to retire early in the late night dances, Angel was one of the few who showed up and enjoying the dancing.


On 7/28/2020, he posted this on Facebook with his wife/dance partner Debbie.

"Well, it looks like 2020 is the year of disease. In June, I was diagnosed with stage 4 bile duct cancer/cholangiocarcinoma. Say that 10 times fast. I've tried! I am in the process of receiving chemo and so far so good. The doctors and I are on the same page of staying positive. My family and close friends have been amazing with their love and support.
I will still be teaching, coaching, and head judging.
Positive thoughts people!!
I will keep everyone in the loop with my progress. Thank you for all your support!
Remember: It's still walk, walk, triple, triple!
#cancersucks
#fuckcancer
#thinkpositive"


Stage 4 of any cancer is bad news. It means the cancer has metastasized to distant place(s), and that makes surgical removal of the cancers much trickier, or often impossible. Also in general, cancers advanced enough to metastasize are difficult to kill, more resistant to chemo- or radio-therapies.

Cholangiocarcinoma (rare cancer occurring in bile duct) is another bad news. Certain cancers are more difficult to deal with, and cholangiocarcinoma is one of those difficult cancers as of 2020. Of course I did not know specifics of his cancer, but it was sobering to read the post.


Afterwards, people in West Cast Swing (and Hustle and other) dance communities started posting his photos and dance videos with their comments as their tributes, encouragements, and well-wishes. Several (likely more) GoFundMe sites popped up to help him and his family.



On 8/15, there was a video of Angel and Debbie, thanking all the support.

It was somewhat shocking to see him thinning so much.



Then only 5 days later on 8/20 Thursday, Debbie posted,

"Angel Figueroa passed peacefully at 4:28pm on 8/20/2020 in the arms of his wife and son. We are heartbroken but ever so grateful."


This post triggered flooding of my FB feed with personal comments, photos, videos, etc from the dance communities, manly from WCS, and friends everywhere.


Today is 8/23 Sunday, but the flood of posts still continue.


Whole dance community is saying farewell and sending tributes. It is a rare sight.

[His "famous" quote as the head judge of WCS contests]

Dance (or lack of): Try something different ..Jump shoes, breaking a fall, etc

 Due to COVID19, social dance scene is pretty much dead for these past 5 months. Almost all party places are closed or limited opening with masks required/encouraged.

For your dance, you can choose either (a) focus on solo practice and keep working, or (b) try something different. It's a good opportunity for a change, for trying something new.

In the meantime, a few months ago I got my knee hurt from running, and was looking for a decent pair of shoes that are easy on my knees. I have pairs from Adidas, Nike, Hoka, Mizuno, Brooks, Reebok, etc. They are all quite decent, but at 195 lb and running on a hard pavement I feel a little heavy in them.

Then I came across this one. It's not really running shoes; it belongs to a different category.

[8/6/2020]

It's a jump shoes. 

Using my birthday as an excuse, I bought it. Hopping around in the shoes was quite fun.

Then,

[08/09/2020]

I went out for a jog/jump in the shoes. And tripped while attempting to run fast. Glad my body somehow remembered how to break a fall, taught by a PE teacher at an introductory judo class in my junior high (or was it in high school Kendo class? It was such an old time, I cannot even remember exactly when).

They said something like, "Instead of trying to stop the fall with your limbs, which can cause broken bones in your wrist or arm, redirect the momentum and roll."

"For the finish, tuck in your chin and look at your navel to avoid hitting the ground with back of your head."

Anyhow, I rolled fine enough on the concrete ground, while getting a few scratches on my palms, right elbow, and right knee. 

I was humbled enough. I ordered some protective gear to avoid scratching next time.

[08/13/2020]

I'll go again, once these scratches heal.

PS

Today a friend of mine was admitted to ICU due to COVID19. And he is not even old, still in his 30's (probably). The virus is very real. Hope he gets well soon.

Science: DOD grant sent out, and 3 lessons to improve the process next time

Sending out a grant, federal or local, needs to follow steps. It's not something that you just write a proposal based on your great idea and send it out.

Today we sent out a grant application to DOD. This entry is a self-debriefing session to go through the process easier next time.

Actually, today was the due date. We worked on it last minute. How did it happen?


To write a grant, a Principal Investigator (PI) search announcements (local, federal, private, etc),, and find an announcement that he would have chance to get funded, which should match his qualification, skills, specialty, etc.

Then he read the announcement and get the details; how much funding and for how long, its scope, etc. That will define what he should do, collect, and prepare, to write the grant. Also he can determine whether he can be competitive, or has some weaknesses. He should drop an email to the grant's scientific officer and request advice on if his idea is a good match to the scope of the grant.

Eventually, he decide go or no-go.

Some grants require letter of intent (LOI) beforehand to submit the application. He needs to send LOI in time.

Once decided to go, he write it. Prepare all files following page number and formatting specifications, and collect all the documents needed, like letter of support (LOS) from co-investigator or from department chair. Quotes for cost will be needed for proper budgeting, too.

Although scientific contents of the proposal is important once the proposal is sent out, budget is the most important part for internal review. PIs are usually scientists with some "XYZ Professor" title, and accounting may not be their forte. That is why Office of Research Administration (ORA) people help us out. They will review proposal internally before it is approved to submit. They check all the files and see formatting and specifications are met for the granting agency and announcement.

The ORA people do not check scientific contents, though. Improving scientific contents and increasing his chance to get funded is grantsmanship game of the PI.


About one week before the due date, he needs to get all files ready. Typos and awkward writings should be weeded out by editing software and editor. Scientific contents should be honed with review, feedback and discussion with colleagues and/or co-investigators. 

We have a departmental administrator who help us to set up grant applications.  She also set up internal routing, based on the information PI provide (e.g., title, granting agency, fund requested, starting date, participants, effort %, patent information, etc).

Once the routing form is set up, it will be reviewed by PI, co-investigator, department administrator, deans office, and so on. It will take 2-3 days for the routing form to reach the ORA for their review.

The ORA requires a routing to arrive 3 business days before the due date. If the due is 7/21 Tuesday, ORA should receive the routing by 7/16 Thu evening.

......so this is the rough idea about the procedure to send out a grant.


This time, we initiated the routing on 7/13 Mon.,which was good.

The routing was reviewed by our department, as well as two other departments co-investigators belong, and reached ORA on 7/15, which was also good.

Then it got stuck. Somehow it was assigned to a vacationing officer and she did not come back until Monday. This is one of the reasons we got to work until last minute.

Lesson 1: next time we need to be more proactive to track the progress, even inside ORA. 

This morning (Tuesday) an ORA officer let us know where to fix. Some are easy fix, others are involved in updated fringe rate, which will change salaries on personnel and thus require rework on the budget.

In particular, I was unfamiliar with accounting on cost-sharing and had it wrong. Fixing it took some time and re-approval by departmental reviewer. This is another point we will fix next time.

Lesson 2: Get the cost-sharing accounting right and make sure it is correct at the routing stage. Don't assume administrators correct it.


Then there was some undue stress. I was assuming the due time was Eastern time 5:00 pm (cst 4:00 pm). Naturally, as 4pm was approaching I was uneasy. Then they told me the due time is 11:59 pm eastern time.

Lesson 3: Check the due time.


Thankfully, after the review by the officer, the proposal was sent to the Associate Director (who has authority to submit) for final check, then the proposal was submitted on time.


Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.


I heard the ORA is terribly busy place with high turnover, and I can see why. Especially around the due dates for federal grants (Feb, June, Oct), their reviewing would just be swamped. Still, sending out grant proposals is among few ways Universities make money from outside. ORA is an essential place. I appreciate their help. 

I want to get the application process done easier for me and for them next time, with less fixing.

Science: Working on a DOD grant

This past month we sent out a revised manuscript (6/30/2020). They usually allow 8 weeks for authors to revise. We sent it out on the 7th week. Not much time remaining.

Also in this past month we sent out a grant. It was supposed to be smooth sailing, but due to unexpected delays in the internal paperwork, I had to work on it until last minute.


With that in mind, now we are working on another grant from DOD. The agency due date is 7/21. Today is 7/8. We are planning to start internal routing on 7/13 (Mon). This week is the time to finalize it. 

For the grant, we already sent pre-application and acknowledged. Now we need to fill in a form online and upload several PDF files as attachment to Grants.gov website.

The PDF files include Project Narrative (15 page limit), Lay Abstract (1 page), Technical Abstract (1 page), Support files (including references cited, Letter of support from organization, letter of support from collaborators, and publications and patents), Statement of work (3 page limit), etc. We also need to submit biosketch and ongoing/past support statement for each key personnel.

This project has a PI (Principal Investigator), a co-PI, a co-investigator, two consultants, and a research assistant. Some parts of work will be done by support staff and core facility as well. We want to make sure the project gets done. 

Each document comes with instructions. You cannot get a grant, if you cannot comply with these instructions.


This morning, my co-PI reviewed and sent back Project Narrative, the main body of the proposal, to me with her comments. 

It took a full day for me to incorporate and address her comments and remaking figures. Afterwards I sent the "Project Narrative version 4"  to her this evening. It may sound tedious process, but I can see improvements and it is good. It's a government contract application with real money ($500,000 direct cost) involved, after all. Better get serious.



Unlike publication, a grant does not leave much if it's not funded. Well, people who do not like a failure or two and easily give up are not cut out for a scientist or a researcher. For grants you can recycle the components, include and address reviewers' criticism, add a paper or review, and try it again later. 

We want to send a good proposal that gets funded. Time to work.


As predicted, COVID19 is on the rise again. If I or my co-investigator or my administrator catch it tomorrow, it would be troublesome. I want to give the proposal a good shape fast and get it done quick, before any "accident".

So in these days, I'm just minding my business, mostly.

Science/Life: One month after lab re-opening

It has been a month since our lab re-opening. While we have been preparing for an RO3 grant (USD 100k for 2 years from NIH) to fund a project, we also have done most of the requested reworks and additions for our manuscript under revision. 

Yesterday we started internal routing for submitting the grant. As the grant is almost off of my desk, today I started rewriting the manuscript and rebuttal letter to peer-reviewers. Good reviewers do ask good questions that stimulate our thoughts. Hopefully in 2 weeks, revised manuscript should be sent to editorial office.


What else was I doing?  ...I was doing some research for Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) by reading general books, by researching literature, and by ordering some of the medicines available in the US. 

Of course the original motivation for the small personal research was the COVID19 and to update my medicine cabinet in case of sickness. 

Many should have already noticed that regular western medicines for viral infection diseases are limited. For symptomatic relief there are NSAIDs, cough suppressants, etc. But we were not even sure if it would be beneficial to use them for COVID19. Do you remember the rumor that we should not use ibuprofen?


Perhaps this is a good time for each of us and for medical community to summarize what knowledge we have got for COVID19 and what tools we have now to subdue ongoing pandemic, in exchange for 100,000+ people in the US alone and 4 months of time including the lock down.


BTW actually TCM is quite an interesting research subject. Although I am under impression that doing clinical research for TCM would be tricky for so many reasons, those TCM herbal concoctions can show unique medicinal actions for conditions western drugs are not good at handling. 


I'd write about TCM later. It would be nice if my newfound knowledge on TCM turns out to be useful in my professional studies on genomic instability-associated diseases (i.e., cancer and Alzheimer's).

I guess my curiosity was not so pure in this case. But certainly the research was fun. Also, usefulness is important in medicine, isn't it?

[TCM ingredients]

Life/Science: Back in the workplace (lab/office), Day3

Our institute is in phased opening process. This week they are allowing "nonessential" workers to come back in the lab and office, while mandating mask wearing and social distancing. 

Teleworking is still encouraged.

Just in time for this lab opening, I got a response from editorial office for manuscript revision on Monday (5/11). The comments and revise requests ("major revision") are constructive and manageable (if the lab is open). 

On Tuesday (5/12) we ordered some research reagents and asked histopathology staff to prepare some slides. They are for the revision. She cut the slides from paraffin block the next day and gave them to me today (5/14). It really is good to have efficient research support staff on our side.


I came to the lab for 3 days this week to arrange experiments needed for the revision. With all the raw data within reach and all software available in the computer, it is easier to work in the office than from home.

Tomorrow I'll be teleworking for Zoom lab meeting, writing a grant, sending peer review comments, and other things.

My work environment is not really ordinary and is different from most. My work does not rely on meeting with many people in person, which is great for this "pandemic" time. People are vectors for the virus, from the standpoint of public health.

I sure am a lucky one. In coming weeks I'll keep working on the paper revision and necessary experiments (and grant with 6/16 deadline), hoping for getting them done asap.


I certainly hope there is not the second wave coming. But if the patients number rise quickly and ICUs and ERs in hospitals are flooded, they would close the businesses and put people in quarantine again.

Learning from the quick and messy lab closing and quarantine/teleworking, I better be prepared for the bad case scenario (with second lab closing) and make full use of this lab opening time.


"Mind my own business". This attitude can be quite helpful, especially when idle people with free time splash around their cheap opinions so gleefully.

Life/Science: preparing for re-opening of research lab in Oklahoma

On 5/5, our institute announced schedule for phased re-opening of research labs.

Although telecommuting is still encouraged, the research labs may open beginning 5/11 Monday, with mandatory mask wearing on campus and other precautions (social distancing, disinfecting, hand washing, etc).

That makes the strict closing from 3/23 to 5/10, exactly 7 weeks.

During the 7 telecommuting weeks, I sent out two manuscripts, initiated a new collaborative project, checked out new papers (sometimes it is difficult to keep up without some system like weekly journal club), was peer-reviewing a few manuscripts by others, is working on a grant (due mid June), is reviewing an ongoing collaborative project, did 6+ Zoom meeting, etc etc.

I'd say, it was productive enough. But it also is about time to get some lab work done for research.


I'd miss the telework environment, writing with my cat on my lap, for a while though.


Judging from those maskless people in Walmart and everywhere else (careless), I do think this re-opening of the state for economic purpose would be followed by second wave (like 1918 Spanish Flu), and possibly re-closing of the lab later this year. I got to prepare for it. Get as much lab data as possible, while initiating projects that are telework friendly, during this Summer.

This "opening" is likely a calm before another storm. Preparations don't go waste. Then, why not?



The state closing have given us precious time and knowledge on the disease. There are drugs being tested or reported effective (or refuted). The knowledge from clinical trials are obtained literally through people's sacrifices.


I started walking and exercising, but no significant weight loss has been observed yet. As of today I weigh about 195lb, and am hoping to lose 10-15lb to be able to move better before the end of Summer. I'll keep working out.

Life: what's your personal "Coronavirus status"?

Many of us are shut-in for 3+ weeks already. By this time, your personal "Coronavirus status" should have emerged.

The "Coronavirus status"

  (1) Uninfected and never infected.

  (2) Infected, asymptomatic

  (3) Infected, showing symptoms/feeling sick, but mild and manageable

  (4) Infected, with severe symptoms/hospitalized

  (5) Infected, and died

  (6) Infected, but recovered.


(1) Uninfected and never infected.

Try to keep it up. This "stay at home" order is doing great favor for you. Believe it.

(2)-(5) 

Infected people. Now you are playing Russian Roulette. 

The outcome may be influenced by some factors that include; 

Your age, general health, specific health conditions (diabetes, heart disease, asthma, COPD, etc), habits (smoking), environmental factors (exposure to pollution, high exposure to the virus, etc), genetics, other conditions (sleep, rest, diet, stress, etc) ...many of which you have little control over, but for some you do.

Then, you'll be assigned to one of (2) to (5).

If you are (2) "Infected, asymptomatic", you may not even know you are "positive", but you can spread this highly contagious virus to others. Don't. 

Stay at home and isolate yourself.

If you are (3) "Infected, showing symptoms/feeling sick, but mild and manageable", you may be worried if this turns worse and kill you or you infect others. 

Stay at home and isolate self. Take good care of yourself and try to get well.

If you are (4) "Infected, with severe symptoms/hospitalized", you can not do much here, other than try to hold out. 

Doctors and nurses will try their best to help, maybe with experimental drug or new treatment protocol. You fight for your life.


For (5), I am sorry.


People assigned to (2)-(4) will eventually move to (6), in about 2 -3 weeks for mild cases, and in 3-6+ weeks for severe cases.

For (6) "Infected and recovered" people, there are 3 possible courses. At this moment, we do not know, because this virus is new and there are some uncertainties.

 (6)-1: If the "recovery" from COVID19 gives you lasting immunity, you are in the clear. You can resume your life.

 (6)-2: If the "recovery" from COVID19 does not give you lasting immunity, perhaps due to weak immunogenicity of the virus or the virus' highly mutational nature, you may catch COVID19 again. It is like dealing with common cold. Go back to the beginning. You may (or may not) have a better starting point with your partial immunity.

 (6)-3: If the "recovery" from COVID19 is not exactly "recovery" but only a temporal suppression, you can be "positive" again. Like Chickenpox virus keeps living in you and causing Shingles later, or HSV1 causing cold sore, you may be a silent carrier. Clearly more research is needed. [go back to (2)]

Some people in South Korea are reported to have turned back "positive" after their "recovery". They may either got re-infected [(6)-2], or the virus reemerged [(6)-3]. Either way, it is quite concerning. But don't concern yourself too much, if you are not the few who are actively involved in drug research and development.


Tests to detect active virus in your body (PCR, Abbott lab's rapid test) or to detect antibody in your blood (called serologic test, which will tell your immunity status and suggest your infection history) should be more widely available in some time. Soon we will have better understanding on this viral disease and on how to deal with it.




Our institute is pretty much shut down. Leaving animal maintenance to designated "essential" lab people, I have been "teleworking" from home since 3/23, with weekly Zoom lab meeting. 

In this condition, what I can do is (a) write research manuscript from existing data, (b) write review manuscript from literature research, (c) outline and write grant from existing preliminary data, (d) do literature research and expand research horizon (like reading papers on virus studies), (e) expand research with collaboration, and /or (f) learn something new (new subject, technology, methods, etc). Plenty enough.

With (a), we sent out a research manuscript to a journal last week, and I am working on the next research manuscript that had been suspended for a while. But if the reviewers request revision and if some new experiment is needed, we'll get stuck, as no lab work is permitted now. Oh well, we'll see.