Cath-tastic.
Eat. Sleep. Chemotax. iGEM ♥
Jun 29th, 2009 @ 10:03 pm
Today is the first official day of wetlab. However, Team HL-60 spent the first few hours of the day discussing a paper. Journal club continues. After that, we enjoyed free lunch from the ex-Cell Propulsion Lab presentation/ meeting. Then Ryan and I jetted back to the lab, in hopes of getting our hands on a pipette or some other lab utensil. Since Aynur, Ryan, and I are responsible for the GPCR screen, we spent the day performing a transwell assay. I never knew conducting experiments in the tissue culture room was so intense. Ryan and I might as well set up camp in this room, because we’ll probably spend a ridiculous number of hours in here. So many precautions must be taken in order to prevent contamination of the mammalian cells. Way different from working with S. cereviseae. But then again, bacteria and yeast are all I have worked with prior to this summer. Unlike the majority of the team members this summer, I haven’t taken the City College course on mammalian cells. No matter. I don’t feel disadvantaged; I have Aynur. She explains everything behind our labwork, as if she were going through an open book. It’s quite amazing, actually. She’s very patient with us, so we never hesitate to ask questions. There is also a good amount of humor between us throughout the day, so the intensity of the labwork is somewhat relieved. Speaking of intense, Ryan and I spent [what seemed to be] forever executing the transwell experiment. The protocol is pretty lengthy, and Aynur devoted the whole day to walking us through the procedure. We also learned how to make a solution of EDTA, but we seem to be experiencing some difficulties. And so they mix overnight. By the end of the day, I was wiped. Straight to bed after dinner.
Notice the time. That was when we left. PM, not AM. Recognize. I have no idea why we’re smiling. I know for a fact we wanted to stop moving and knock out. I had better get used to this.
