As of last Friday, I’ve switched projects. Well, refocused my aim. No…it’s a project switch. I’ve spent approximately the last three years examining the long-range interactions along the entire domain in both human cells and in mouse tissues and have finally accepted that it might take another three to do the job completely and thoroughly. My thesis committee (and I) is dismayed about my apparent lack of concrete progress (ie, no papers) and feel I should be at a point now where there’s a clear end in sight. So, at their urging, I’ve switched to a “safe” project, one which will still be scientifically interesting but is not going to have the technical roadblocks that the whole-domain project does.

The plan now is to characterize the promoter and imprinting status of one gene within the domain, including DNase I hypersensitivity, ChIP, in vivo footprinting, methylation, etc. I’ll have the 3C data as well, but it will be focused on the one gene, rather than the entire domain.

I’m rather bummed about this, naturally. However, I think it’s the wise decision. Switching projects is my choice and I’m committed to the new project, but that doesn’t mean I have to be overly thrilled about having to do it.

The switch does give me a nice end goal, though, which is a pleasant thing to see after so many years in the mire.