This week, like most of the previous weeks, started out normally, only to later spiral into chaos.
On Monday, I became the most efficient worker and my supervisor, Caitlin, and I were able to quickly finish four plates, which is the maximum that we can fulfill in one day. We were both really excited because we had just finished half of the work for that entire section of the brain samples that we needed to test. The next day, however, we quickly realized that things were not going as well as we thought.
On Tuesday, my main supervisor, Sarah, came in, saw our results, and very quickly deemed that all of our tests had been messed up, and that we had to redo them. It turned out that one of the antibodies that we were using had expired, but we had no way of knowing that because the antibody was made in the lab, so it doesn't come with an expiration date or anything. I was kind of bummed that we had to redo all of our plates, but what made me feel worse was the thought of all of the money that went down the drain from all of the wasted materials. The rest of the day, I worked on my study design, which is basically an outline for a paper that one wants to publish. I doubt that I will be publishing anything, but my supervisor wants me to practice as this will be a valuable skill in the future when I do other research.
On Wednesday, instead of running all of the plates again, we decided to change some our methods and rerun one plate, just to see if the changes would have much of an effect. The rest of that day was spent working on my study design as well.
On Thursday, we had our normal weekly meetings. This week, Matt, one of the lab researchers, presented his preliminary proposal for a project that he was about to start. The rest of the lab researchers gave him plenty of advice and tips, and that was basically all that happened during the meeting. Afterwards, I had to fish out some old samples in the -80 C freezer before I left early to go on a hiking trip with my family.
On Monday, I became the most efficient worker and my supervisor, Caitlin, and I were able to quickly finish four plates, which is the maximum that we can fulfill in one day. We were both really excited because we had just finished half of the work for that entire section of the brain samples that we needed to test. The next day, however, we quickly realized that things were not going as well as we thought.
On Tuesday, my main supervisor, Sarah, came in, saw our results, and very quickly deemed that all of our tests had been messed up, and that we had to redo them. It turned out that one of the antibodies that we were using had expired, but we had no way of knowing that because the antibody was made in the lab, so it doesn't come with an expiration date or anything. I was kind of bummed that we had to redo all of our plates, but what made me feel worse was the thought of all of the money that went down the drain from all of the wasted materials. The rest of the day, I worked on my study design, which is basically an outline for a paper that one wants to publish. I doubt that I will be publishing anything, but my supervisor wants me to practice as this will be a valuable skill in the future when I do other research.
On Wednesday, instead of running all of the plates again, we decided to change some our methods and rerun one plate, just to see if the changes would have much of an effect. The rest of that day was spent working on my study design as well.
On Thursday, we had our normal weekly meetings. This week, Matt, one of the lab researchers, presented his preliminary proposal for a project that he was about to start. The rest of the lab researchers gave him plenty of advice and tips, and that was basically all that happened during the meeting. Afterwards, I had to fish out some old samples in the -80 C freezer before I left early to go on a hiking trip with my family.
Hi Rohith - hoping you enjoyed the hiking trip!
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that antibodies have an expiration date. How was your supervisor able to so quickly determine that this was the source of your problem? Is expiration date something that can be predicted so that containers can be labeled accordingly? (Sounds like you spend a good amount of time in that refrigerator sorting materials!) Congratulations on becoming so efficient - sounds like a major accomplishment!
Nice job on being the most efficient worker there!! What do you include in a study design? Is it a typical science project but obviously more in-depth?
ReplyDeleteI think it's so valuable that you are working on a study design! I'm sure that it will come in handy! who knows.. maybe you will be published?
ReplyDeletebummer to hear about the antibodies! is there a way to predetermine if they are expired or not before you use them?