Since I don’t want to bore you to tears with the how tos, what/whys of my methodology in a typical work day, I thought I’d share some shots of my work! The blog is severely lacking the nerding realm so hopefully this will quell the naysayers (or just me).
Isolating DNA from tissue samples
Sometimes I get to ‘cook’ up recipes at work…
Using the Polymerase Chain Reaction product on an electrophoresis gel (PCR…a technique figured out by a dude tripping on acid. Don’t believe me? Read it here. I am in no way advocating use of LSD, Kary Mullis is a controversial figure in the science world).
Sometimes, I have to read a lot of things I don’t understand and wiki words in every paragraph to get clues into whys/hows I have with my own work
A sample calculation sheet I made in Excel so I don’t have to do the math every time I need to run a genotyping experiment. The white bars are at a certain base pair number (the lower it is, the shorter the piece of DNA and therefore molecular weight. If it’s up high then it’s a longer piece and weighs more get it?). Basically I’m using a reaction to amplify a single or a few copies of a piece of DNA across several orders of magnitude, generating thousands to millions of copies of a particular DNA sequence. In the photo below, I’m looking for a transgene at 494 base pairs in a particular line of Cre mice.
Obviously, I need cool tunes to get my way through this sometimes. I listen to music often at work even when reading. It forces me to concentrate on what I’m doing but takes a bit of the ‘edge’ off if the lab was dead silent. Sometimes less pressure is golden for work!
1. Did everyone fall asleep?
2. What’s your work day in pictures look like?
You are so cool! I love that you work in a lab. My photos would involve a huge maze of a building, a computer screen, editing suites, meeting rooms and scripts covered in highlighters
ha! i refer to it as ‘geek chic’ i have a love/hate relationship with science. just when i feel so defeated i want to quit, something amazing happens or i get a great opportunity to learn something great. i just need to have a more go with the flow attitude…that’s hard for me since i want everything to “work” all the time. lesson #1 in science, your data just is what it is, don’t try to over think it.
I would be so lost at your job! You are amazing for learning and understanding all that
I need to take pictures of what we do in a day!!! thanks for the idea xoxo
i can teach anyone how to do what i do seriously! it looks harder that it actually is i think
i love seeing what people do during the day it’s so interesting!
Hm..I wish I studied hard enough in school so I could be a science nerd like you ..haha.
My job was mostly involved sitting in front of computer screen the whole day, moving graphic objects, coloring, combining two photos and typing codes.
Now just the same…the difference is I’m doing it to search another job.
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