<input type="checkbox" id="egg" style="display:none;"><label for="egg" class="easter-label"></label> ​​I visualize data in biology so everyone, PhD or not, can see the same truth. The best part? It's about **truly invisible things.** Making what's never seen, finally seen. And it's a force. A fact of life. **Shoot. Consider being alive for a second.** Suddenly it's more serious than some water, mineral or vitamin. Called "_micro_"-nutrients. But it's definitely about one macro-nutrient: - That means DNA's not food. It's out the cut. - It not about fats. - Or carbs. It's about **proteins** And arguably a *you are what you eat* ordeal. But it's in ways nobody's ever explained it. But enough talk. **Use your optics...** ![[d2fd00076h-f1_hi-res (1).gif]] > ### Flash-freezing life's nanometer toolkit and casting its shadow by electron beam is called cryo-electron microscopy, or [cryo-EM](https://youtu.be/qc2PbmI5qMw?si=HOvVoLZL2QZKv-PD), and <u>I dream to lead a career in _solving the core architecture of the cell_.</u> <br> [Over 250 proteins are discovered weekly](https://www.rcsb.org/search?request=%7B%22query%22%3A%7B%22type%22%3A%22group%22%2C%22nodes%22%3A%5B%7B%22type%22%3A%22group%22%2C%22nodes%22%3A%5B%7B%22type%22%3A%22group%22%2C%22nodes%22%3A%5B%7B%22type%22%3A%22terminal%22%2C%22service%22%3A%22text%22%2C%22parameters%22%3A%7B%22attribute%22%3A%22rcsb_entity_source_organism.taxonomy_lineage.name%22%2C%22operator%22%3A%22exact_match%22%2C%22value%22%3A%22Homo%20sapiens%22%7D%7D%2C%7B%22type%22%3A%22terminal%22%2C%22service%22%3A%22text%22%2C%22parameters%22%3A%7B%22attribute%22%3A%22rcsb_accession_info.initial_release_date%22%2C%22operator%22%3A%22range%22%2C%22value%22%3A%7B%22from%22%3A%22now-1M%22%2C%22to%22%3A%22now%22%7D%7D%7D%5D%2C%22logical_operator%22%3A%22and%22%7D%5D%2C%22logical_operator%22%3A%22and%22%7D%5D%7D%2C%22return_type%22%3A%22entry%22%7D). They range from several amino acids. To several million. All joined together like beads on a string. Yet being around for eons.^[Jeyaraj G, Rajendran AK, Sathishkumar KK, Almutairi B, Vadivelu A, Chokkakula S, Xie W. High-resolution protein modeling through Cryo-EM and AI: current trends and future perspectives–a review. Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences. 2025 Oct 23;12:1688455. doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2025.1688455] And responsible for everything alive, ever. To better appreciate how these work inside the body I'm preparing for a career that focuses on imaging these "dream team" assemblies inside the cell and look forward to completing my undergrad in transmission electron microscopy ([TEM](https://microscopy.org/cemt-certification-program)). I actively seek shadowing opportunities in central Ohio. Hands-on scoping experience will prepare me to specialize in Cryo-EM, a type of TEM built to capture the contents of cells in their native state.^[Bharat TA, Scheres SH. Resolving macromolecular structures from electron cryo-tomography data using subtomogram averaging in RELION. Nature protocols. 2016 Nov;11(11):2054-65. doi: 10.1038/nprot.2016.124] Here, most microscopes we think of use light to resolve things. Cryo-EM is different by boosting the resolution power down to the size of atoms, called near-atomic resolution. This is where taking pictures under the scope is tricky because observing is not passive but destructive. > ![[mn-example-starfile.mp4]] Courtesy, **Molecular Nodes** <br> Your sense of scale here fails because this is on a scale way below the everyday light we rely on to navigate the world. Light now passes through everything at this scale. It's invisible, and it's why electrons have been foundational in this way. But let's go back to how it's destructive: electrons in cryo-em experiments have to be sped at more than half the speed of light and be flicked off from their home atom for the sake of focusing them as a beam. Because they're screaming through thin materials for a shadow to be made they cook whatever is being observed. That's how it's destructive. Thousands of images of proteins with holes blown in them have to be mapped and overlapped on one another to be averaged so as to "stitched things back together" the full length of a particular protein. Better yet, this technique will allow me to reconstruct a storytelling aspect of diseases originating in a protein's loss or sometimes an undesired gain in function, revealing what light-based methods can’t.^[Westbrook JD, Young JY, Shao C, Feng Z, Guranovic V, Lawson CL, Vallat B, Adams PD, Berrisford JM, Bricogne G, Diederichs K. PDBx/mmCIF ecosystem: foundational semantic tools for structural biology. Journal of molecular biology. 2022 Jun 15;434(11):167599 doi: 10.1016/j.jmb.2022.167599] # Work and Life Outside It I’m a medical professional with over 5 years of experience in lab medicine and pharmacy. I'm a former **Medical Lab Assistant** and current Registered Pharmacy Technician (RPhT) with expectations to advance my talent as a **Certified Pharmacy Technician** ([CPhT](https://ptcb.org/credentials/certification/certified-pharmacy-technician)) with a specialty in sterile drug compounding. Between studies and work you can find me enjoying road trips, a hard-to-beat hike, and sharing an evening fire with friends. An "abundant imprint" is realizing the fact that things will sometimes make the most sense only after your pathway to achievement. It doesn't need to make sense at this time or even a year or two from now. Be patient. Be hungry to strike out for yourself and find a quarter-century problem that has you obsessed. # Philosophy I believe anyone can take to solving problems in the world. We're all engineers at heart just as we are actionable dreamers so enjoy the slow thinking to really appreciate and understand the "how" of things. For me, it's been a lot about consistency, persistence, and usually finding the right people from what I've experienced. In that way my studies remain necessary and positive. Trust this process and be kind to yourself. Combining art with data has become a deeply satisfying way to decipher our unseeable architecture. I turn to the art of science visualization to make complex research datasets accessible and accurate—representing the natural world as it actually appears at scales invisible to the eye. Again, truly unseeable things are up and dancing to make it all work. By creating visualizations that get to the point without rolling up your sleeves I advance transparency and reproducibility in the natural sciences.^[Wilkinson MD, Dumontier M, Aalbersberg IJ, Appleton G, Axton M, Baak A, Blomberg N, Boiten JW, da Silva Santos LB, Bourne PE, Bouwman J. The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship. Scientific data. 2016 Mar 15;3(1):1-9. doi: 10.1038/sdata.2016.18] Much of my work focuses on how proteins form complex shapes and band together to sustain processes that underlie all life.^[Bustamante C. Molecular machines one molecule at a time. Protein science: a publication of the Protein Society. 2017 Jun 20;26(7):1245. doi: 10.1002/pro.3205] # Science Visualization ![[lemasterdj_insulin_storage_figure.png]] I analyzed several review papers to learn about the stepwise organization of human insulin storage in the presence of zinc and calcium ions. In our bodies, insulin first comes as two small proteins to bond together to form a dimer. If it's not in this two-piece "dimer" formation then it's not insulin and our bodies don't understand how to use it. Our bodies are also good about storing insulin for future, three "active insulin" dimers further assemble into a compact hexamer. Think of it as a parcel that's on the shelf waiting to be finally delivered when our bodies call for it. This hexameric arrangement maximizes packing efficiency within pancreatic β-cells, resembling the regular geometry of a honeycomb and it works for insulin as a long-term storage pathway.^[Ayan E, Engilberge S, Yokoi S, Orlans J, de Sanctis D, Basu S, Rive‐Mathieu E, Kepceoglu A, Mitsutake A, Demirci H. Triple Calcium Binding Stoichiometry in the Monoclinic Crystal Form of Protracted Insulin. Small Structures. 2025 Dec;6(12):e202500398. doi: 10.1002/sstr.202500398] This is just one example of how I make sense of researcher data by visualizing biomolecules in ways that communicate clearly and accurately. Using data from the RCSB Protein Data Bank,^[Berman HM, Burley SK. Protein Data Bank (PDB): Fifty-three years young and having a transformative impact on science and society. Quarterly reviews of biophysics. 2025 Jan;58:e9. doi: 10.1017/S0033583525000034] I identify structural features relevant for educational, translational, and clinical applications. # Technical Writing ## Mini-Review on Protein Science ![[5KWO (1).png]] Three common protein secondary structures in the wild: disordered regions (white) move freely like wet noodles or hinges; alpha-helices pack as rigid cabin logs or coiled springs to provide scaffolding; beta-sheets feature parallel or antiparallel strands (arrows indicate directionality) that bend and shear like taut fabric or plywood. For such a substance with countless characteristics, I've decided to write a manuscript on [Basics and Foundations in Protein Science](Basics%20and%20Foundations%20in%20Protein%20Science.md). Proteins come together to form you and me—including the broader experience of life itself. Crucially, they are the enacted, unsung heros which piece everything together. ## Scoping 100 Cryo-EM Authors ![[emd_39205.map_zprojection.jpeg]] The PIEZO receptor for our sense of touch, pressure, and bringing something like a cup to our lips to drink without looking at it, instinctively knowing where our limbs are located relative to our body. Still a work in progress, I hope to publish a book covering why Cryo-EM has been the center of my attention when it comes to landing my dream role as a microscopist. You can find it [being edited currently](100%20Images%20of%20Cryo-EM.md) with the expectation to include no more than 100 different examples. To keep the reading exciting while making sense, I stick to proteins that mediate our perceived senses like sight, hearing, taste, and others that underpin our everyday living like carbon-fixation in plants, translating to the air we breathe, to learning and memory in our brains, and more. # Contact **[email protected] [(614) 604-2565](tel:6146042565) [ORCID](https://orcid.org/0009-0000-3548-3303) [LinkedIn](https://linkedin.com/in/lemasterdj) [Instagram](https://instagram.com/lemasterdj) [Zotero Library](https://www.zotero.org/lemasterdj/item-list)**