Yeap, I'm damn pissed off rite now. It's a long story.. n u readers can continue on if u're prepared for complaints, complaints n more complaints (I've warn y'all!!). I'm in my final year now, so, obviously, I'm doing my final year project. We were all very eager to start the lab in the 1st place. In fact, we're the first group of our batch to enter the lab, which is end of Nov. Most of the students start their work after the briefing on the 1st week of Dec. Ok, sooooo we finally have our own apparatus n lab bench! Soo happy!
We started by having explanations from our senior regarding the protocols n other stuff, including: how to wrap & autoclave the apparatus, buy & prepare the samples, improve our lab techniques, n also the rules & regulations of the lab (I'm extremely grateful tat we have a senior to teach us all this stuff). It seems tat we're allowed to aliquot our reagents once a week, I repeat, ONCE A WEEK, which is every Thu. Meaning, even if we submit our aliquotion forms on Fri, Mon, Tue or Wed, we'll still get our reagents on Thu ONLY. So, calculate ur reagents properly, or else, u wun have enuff reagents. It's cool n we're ok wif it. As long as we aliquot correctly, we'll have enuff reagents to last us for the whole week.
Without further delay, we start the 1st part of our research project: preparation of samples. After searching n buying the respective samples for each 1 of us, we start to prepare the samples by DNA quantification n grinding of samples wif liquid nitrogen. Not bad, it's very fun, actually. Hahaha, I really enjoy lab. We were preparing our samples halfway (Ahem, each 1 of us got 8 samples) when we found out tat the liquid nitrogen finished ady. So, wait lor.. After almost 2 weeks, finally, the supply of liquid nitrogen is here! Yeaahhh! Can continue our 1st part of project.
Next, is part 2, where we're supposed to extract DNA using Wizard Extraction Kit. So, we follow exactly wat our senior taught us: aliquot our reagents accordingly n try to reduce contaminations or technical errors. Of course, along the way, we made a lot of mistakes. No worries, we'll just learn from our mistakes n improve ourselves! Oh yeah, not forgetting tat there're other problems too, such as contamination in the reagent itself (Probably lab tech's fault or the company's fault) and apparatus error (In tis case, 1 of the micropipette is not accurate). It's oookkk.. we can continue our project. After 1 or 2 times of extractions (Pls la, oni few samples oni, not all the samples, ok?), the kits finished ady. So, WAIT LOR..
After 2 months of waiting, finally, the kits come ady!! Yipeeeeee!! Of course, we wanna start rite away, but dun forget, we're oni allowed to aliquot the reagents ONCE A WEEK. So, another week wasted, n finally, we can get our hands on the reagents. So, I waited in the lab today (Thu) to collect the reagents, mana tau, the lab tech says the kits might not be able to last for a long time. WTF!!?? Dun tell me another 2 more months of waiting!? Correction, wasting!? Summore, they ask us (Including other fyp students, too) y we aliquot so much. Helllooooo.. we're oni following our protocols. Summore, we've already tried to minimize the amount.
We started by having explanations from our senior regarding the protocols n other stuff, including: how to wrap & autoclave the apparatus, buy & prepare the samples, improve our lab techniques, n also the rules & regulations of the lab (I'm extremely grateful tat we have a senior to teach us all this stuff). It seems tat we're allowed to aliquot our reagents once a week, I repeat, ONCE A WEEK, which is every Thu. Meaning, even if we submit our aliquotion forms on Fri, Mon, Tue or Wed, we'll still get our reagents on Thu ONLY. So, calculate ur reagents properly, or else, u wun have enuff reagents. It's cool n we're ok wif it. As long as we aliquot correctly, we'll have enuff reagents to last us for the whole week.
Without further delay, we start the 1st part of our research project: preparation of samples. After searching n buying the respective samples for each 1 of us, we start to prepare the samples by DNA quantification n grinding of samples wif liquid nitrogen. Not bad, it's very fun, actually. Hahaha, I really enjoy lab. We were preparing our samples halfway (Ahem, each 1 of us got 8 samples) when we found out tat the liquid nitrogen finished ady. So, wait lor.. After almost 2 weeks, finally, the supply of liquid nitrogen is here! Yeaahhh! Can continue our 1st part of project.
Next, is part 2, where we're supposed to extract DNA using Wizard Extraction Kit. So, we follow exactly wat our senior taught us: aliquot our reagents accordingly n try to reduce contaminations or technical errors. Of course, along the way, we made a lot of mistakes. No worries, we'll just learn from our mistakes n improve ourselves! Oh yeah, not forgetting tat there're other problems too, such as contamination in the reagent itself (Probably lab tech's fault or the company's fault) and apparatus error (In tis case, 1 of the micropipette is not accurate). It's oookkk.. we can continue our project. After 1 or 2 times of extractions (Pls la, oni few samples oni, not all the samples, ok?), the kits finished ady. So, WAIT LOR..
After 2 months of waiting, finally, the kits come ady!! Yipeeeeee!! Of course, we wanna start rite away, but dun forget, we're oni allowed to aliquot the reagents ONCE A WEEK. So, another week wasted, n finally, we can get our hands on the reagents. So, I waited in the lab today (Thu) to collect the reagents, mana tau, the lab tech says the kits might not be able to last for a long time. WTF!!?? Dun tell me another 2 more months of waiting!? Correction, wasting!? Summore, they ask us (Including other fyp students, too) y we aliquot so much. Helllooooo.. we're oni following our protocols. Summore, we've already tried to minimize the amount.
And thus, I'm not sure wif the progress of our project now. I can't believe tat we're actually stuck in part 2 of our project! Not to mention tat there're other parts of the project tat we totally haven't do yet:
Part 3: Checking of DNA purity wif spectrophotometer (Quite easy la, so, it's ok)
Part 4: PCR [8 samples + 1 (+)ve control + 1 (-)ve control = 10 samples]
Part 5: Gel electrophoresis (Pre n post PCR products)
Part 6: Interpreting results (Whether got band or not? Even if got, wat band is it? Is there any smear? Is the DNA pure enuff? Is there any contamination? Is there any primer dimer?). Of cos, we'll nid to troubleshoot the problems if there's any.
Part 7: Spiking of the samples
Part 8: Identifying presence of PCR inhibitors
Part 9: Finding the suitable PCR facilitators
Part 10: Repeat the project wif another kit: QIAmp DNA Stool Kit. There we goes again..
Yeah, I noe I shouldn't be complaining soo much cos as expected, tis is wat we call research project. Seriously, I dun mind doing all the lab work if there's enuff reagents and machines for us to use. Summore, if we're not able to finish the fyp in time, our juniors will be having a hard time, too. It's already enuff tat we're having problems here, it's even worse if our problems will affect other ppl as well, rite? Hmmm... we'll try our best to find solutions to all these problems. After all, tis is our 1st choice from the 3 titles. Lolzz... Be grateful for wat we're given n enjoy lab as much as possible! ^_^
2 comments:
I'm also doing my extraction n PCR...I also headache with my lab...sometimes the protocol seems to be easy but actually practically not...really need to throubleshoot alot...frenz..gambateh...la..
OMG. Winnie, ur stress is mounting each time you are held back by meaningless factors. Be cool, you need your mind clear to work out ur thesis most efficiently! All the best!
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