Misgina: Hollywood tutor

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I got my bachelor's degree in biology in 2006 from Addis Ababa University, located in the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa. Then I started my career as a biology and chemistry teacher at the School of Americana, located in Addis Ababa. A year later, I started my master's degree in fisheries and aquatic sciences. It was a part-time study and I finished it in July 2010. Immediately after graduation, I was offered a lecturer position at the University of Jijiga, a state university in southeast Ethiopia. There, I taught a couple of biology courses for one semester. Because I am more interested in biomolecular sciences, I decided to do another master's degree in molecular biology, and then went to Sweden, northern Europe.
In February 2011, I started my master's in molecular biology at Umea University and did the following coursework: immunology, molecular genetics, tumor (cancer) biology, protein purification and analysis techniques, spectroscopy, and medicinal chemistry. In addition, I got some hands-on training in protein crystallization techniques and FTIR spectroscopy.
Then I started my thesis project on recombinant protein production and characterization. I expressed different constructs of a bacterial photogenic enzyme called Yersinia outer protein H (YopH). After successfully expressing and purifying the various domains of the enzyme (protein), I did protein crystallization experiments and luckily got highly diffracting protein crystals. Then, the crystals were subjected to X-ray diffraction experiments, diffraction data were collected, and finally, the 3-dimesional structure of the protein of interest was solved using the molecular replacement technique. It was my supervisor who solved the structure, since solving a structure was too advanced for me. In addition, I did enzyme kinetics studies and determined enzyme kinetics parameters. My study strengthens the claim that YopH is the most active phosphatase ever known.
Before finishing the write-up of my thesis in molecular biology, I got a research job opportunity. It was a collaboration project between Umea and Lulea universities: developing an alternative delivery system for salmon calcitonin, a peptide important for the treatment of osteoporosis. I worked on that project for a year, and we got beneficial results. After finishing my master's studies in molecular biology, I went to Belgium and researched at the University of Antwerp until February 2016. There I was studying about globins from C. elegans.
I am pursuing a graduate program in biochemistry at George Mason University, here in Virginia.