Day 61: Back in the Lab (5/20/2008)

I'm back at it in the lab again working on finishing up my dissertation. I have a few things to double check and a few more things to look at.

P365R D6: Lab Bugs (3/25/08)

Working late at night in the lab sometimes creates an uneasy truce between myself and some of the other inhabitants of Lippincott hall. We have these tremendously large cockroaches. I'm not sure what species they are but large enough that they have a hard time rolling over when they end up on their backs. Being the humanitarian or bugtarian in this case I usually roll them back over so they don't launch themselves at me.

Project 365 Day 36: Ode to Agrarose

Just Kidding, I'm not that deep into the TE buffer yet. Granted I came close tonight to professing my love for NuSieve 3.:1 Agarose and the beautiful little shiny gels it creates.

P365 D8: PCR

As a genetic researcher one of the most common things I do is a procedure called Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Since the 1980s this has been one of the most common laboratory procedures in biology because it allows you to take a small amount of DNA (generally less than 100 microliters, most commonly 25 microliters) or RNA and make a bunch of it. PCR is generally the first step in any of the molecular analysis done in the lab. I have no idea how many PCRs I have done through the course of grad school, but it is probably a lot. This picture shows the end product before it is run out on the gel.