Because I was bored in lab...

While I was waiting to wash the secondary antibody off my Western I was catching up on a few blogs, and came across the "Brutally Honest Personality Test" as taken by Dr. FreeRide on Adventures in Ethics and Science.
My results?

Borefest - ISTJ
40% Extraversion, 33% Intuition, 73% Thinking, 73% Judging

One word. Boring. Sums you up to a tee. You're responsible, trustworthy, serious and down to earth. Boring. Boring. Boring.

You play by the rules. You follow tradition. You encourage structure.

You insist that EVERYBODY do EVERYTHING by the book. Seriously, is there even an ounce of imagination in that little brain of yours? I mean, what's the point of imagination, right? It has no practical value...

As far as you're concerned, abstract theories can go screw themselves. You just want the facts, all the facts and nothing but the facts.

Oh. And you're a perfectionist. About everything. You know that the previous sentence was gramattically incorrect and that "gramattically" was spelt wrong. Your financial records are correct to 25 decimal places and your bedroom is in pristine condition. In fact, you even don't sleep on your bed anymore for fear that you might crease the sheets.

Thankfully, you don't have anyone else to share the bed with, because you're uncomfortable expressing affection and emotion to others. Too bad.

When I first started reading, I was insulted and in denial. Then, I reached the paragraph on being a perfectionist... and suddenly wanted to curl up in a ball under my desk (except that it's way too dirty since nobody ever mops the lab floor and it is probably covered with lots of chemicals). I am (a) an extreme grammar nazi [I WILL JUDGE YOU WHEN YOU USE IMPROPER GRAMAR], (b) I am widely known for being the most financially ultra-organized person around and have to have every financial interaction tracked to the cent in Microsoft Money, and (c) I ALWAYS make my bed in the morning, hospital corners and all. Always. Even if I'm running late, the bed is made. I have not once, since I started college, left my bed unmade. And as for my room -- it is always in pristine condition. I have an unhealthy obsession with organization, neatness, and vacuumed carpets. I think I'm severely allergic to messiness and clutter.
I guess you have it -- I am a borefest. But then again, what can you expect from someone who is going for a Ph.D. in oncology? I don't think we're the most exciting people out there.
(I promise to really start posting again sometime soon. It's just that when you're in the lab 10-12 hours per day, seven days per week, there really isn't anything of any interest going on, unless you want to hear all about how all my experiments refuse to work, and my experiment results bore me at the moment since I can't extract any useful data, so how could I subject anyone else to them? See? I really AM a borefest. How depressing.)

Always Know Your PI's Schedule

I suck at life. No, really – I do. I’m not trying to get sympathy or anything here, it’s just a fact – I cannot manage to get the hang of this whole life thing. I am, once again, sick with some deviant of the “third floor plague” which I had back in September – fever, stuffy nose, aches and pains, inability to breathe, drowning in mucus, and a general overall feeling of malaise. And this morning, I arrived in the lab at 5:30am. I know I usually come in early, but 5:30 is a bit ridiculous, no? I haven’t decided yet if this is because I am the most dedicated graduate student in the entire medical center or because I am just truly insane.

The reason for my pre-crack-of-dawn arrival was to run a third protein gel. I had three to run yesterday, but two of the gel boxes were already in use, and it is only possible to run two gels per box, so I was only able to run two of my three gels. I’ve been working on one protein immunoprecipitation project and one protein purification, both of which will be important supplemental data to an R-01 grant for my PI which must be submitted by December 1^st, so we’re on a tight timeline. My PI stops by the lab at least three times per day to see how I am progressing and has been getting pretty excited about my results, so yesterday he made it clear that he wanted me to run all the gels ASAP. Since I could only run two overnight, I figured I’d get into the lab at 5:30, pour another gel, run the gel from 6 – 10, fix the gel for half an hour, add stain and then upon returning from class at noon, have two fully stained gels to show him and have the third gel transferring to a membrane for Western blotting. Basically, I figured that the only way to get everything done in a timely fashion was to come in at 5:30, and I am more than willing to do this when necessary. Seems like everything was planned out well, right?

The morning got off to a rough start when I discovered that the two gels I had running mysteriously stopped working during the night. The third gel box and its associated power supply are a little shady (we very rarely have more than 4 gels running at a time, so the last box is hardly ever used) and it just up and quit during the night. I resuscitated the power supply, but I’m not sure what kind of affect it will have on the gel itself and the proteins. Then, I spent ten minutes wandering around trying to find my automatic pipetter and squirt bottle of ethanol, both of which disappeared off my bench at some point after I left for the evening (I have, by far, the most organized, cleanest, neatest bench in the lab, so whenever someone needs extra bench space or to borrow a quick supply, they head straight to my area – I don’t mind, as long as people REUTRN THINGS so that I am not wandering around the lab at 5:40am with a storm cloud brewing over my head). I finally locate everything, pour my gel, and while it is hardening, stop by the chalk talk board to read the updates – and realize that BOTH THE LAB PI’S ARE OUT OF TOWN FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK. Apparently everyone BUT me received that memo, as it is now almost 9:00 and the majority of the lab has yet to show up – the head honchos are gone, which means it’s a prime opportunity for sleeping in.

See? I really do suck at life. I get here at 5:30am to run a gel for him – and he’s not even here to see the finished results. Things like this happen to me all the time. And of course one day next week something will come up and I won’t be able to finish something and there will be that look of disappointment or suggestion that maybe I should just work a little harder. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I am going to go take a handful of Tylenol Cold and Sinus caplets (it’s 9am and I’ve already exceeded my entire maximum dose for the day), blow my nose 294 more times, and climb up on my desk and take a nap until the rest of the lab members decide to make an appearance.

D.C. Autumn

In lieu of actually writing anything, I thought I’d post a few pictures instead. My parents came down to D.C. yesterday, so we spent the day enjoying the wonderful weather and walking around the new National Garden for the afternoon. It was nice to actually get outside for a bit and do something non-cancer oriented, and we were even able to intercept my boyfriend on his way back from the hospital and convince him to come along for the afternoon to actually breathe some fresh air (he is a hostage of internal medicine and only ever sees the inside of the hospital or the inside of his apartment – no time for anything else). Of course, since we took the afternoon off, we’ll both be spending the day working like maniacs trying to catch up and hopefully having time to take a break to watch some football (Eagles for him, Steelers for me). My goal for the day is to stop in the lab to do a bit of cell culture, finish up a paper due tomorrow for ethics class on animal research, try to understand this paper I’m presenting in journal club on Wednesday and start to put together a powerpoint presentation, and catch up on reading a few articles… and I think I also promised my boyfriend to work on a patient write-up for him if he would take the afternoon off to spend time with my parents yesterday. It will be a stressful day, but it was definitely worth taking the time off yesterday. And allow me to stress the point -- if you ever want to come to visit D.C., do try and come in the fall -- it is so much nicer than the swamplike summers.

If I were an Enzyme...

It’s a beautiful day out today, it’s Friday afternoon, it looks like I’ll only have minimal bench work to do this weekend… things are really looking up for a change. Maybe my fantastic mood is some strange inverse Friday the 13^th luck… but whatever it is, I’ll take it! I think it’s more a combination of this week flying past and the sudden change in the weather. I’m not sure why, but the weeks when I’m in the lab the most really fly by, and considering my Monday-Thursday hours spent in lab total comes to 46, this week has been zooming. It definitely feels more like a Wednesday than a Friday. And as for the weather… Happy Autumn, everyone! After starting out in the 80s this week, it has finally dropped into the 50s, and I couldn’t be more pleased. I love fall weather. Today was officially the day for the First Sweater of the Year (I decided to give the honors to a cashmere/angora mix navy blue, light blue, and green argyle v-neck sweater from J. Crew) and when I left my apartment this morning, I could see the condensation of my breath in the air. Walking across the Key Bridge, the Washington monument stood out in the distance and the Potomac River glistened under the bridge. Really, I could not ask for more perfect weather, and hopefully I’ll be able to do something outdoors and touristy this weekend (my parents will be down to visit for the day) like the zoo or checking out the newly opened National Gardens.

Also thought I would pass along the lab humor for the day… I woke up this morning and found an email from my best friend containing the image below (Thanks, Mark!).
My research deals with helicases (although more specifically I work with RNA helicases) and I’ve been doing a lot of helicase reading lately in preparation for a journal club which I am presenting next week. I showed this to a friend in the lab who also got a kick out of it, and we printed out a copy and hung it between our desks. I guess there is no requirement that Ph.D. students have to be mature, just hard working (and as I type this, there are jokes cracking in the background my friend’s attempts to grow spermatocytes in culture… suggestions along the lines of ‘play them some Marvin Gaye’ and ‘just be gentle and caressing’ – further proof that scientists may be intelligent, but just don’t mature – at least in this lab).

On that note, I am going to finish up working on this presentation for journal club, work a bit on an ethics paper, maybe take a look at a take-home cancer genetics exam – and try to leave the lab a bit on the early side this afternoon so I can enjoy the evening and this fabulous mood!

Laboratory Insanity

I am sick. This statement is valid in multiple ways. First off, I have been quite ill physically for the past two weeks. We’ve all been passing around a severe cold, which has affectionately been named the “third floor plague.” I seem to have acquired a much worse form than anyone else, and have been stuck with congested sinuses, unbearable headaches, post-nasal drip, overall body aches, and a fever for fourteen days now. Enough is enough already! Fourteen days is ridiculous and just when I thought I was starting to feel better, I’ve found myself actually feeling even worse.

It’s recently been confirmed, however, that I am just as unhealthy from a mental standpoint. I began to suspect as much last week when I continued to drag myself into the lab everyday, despite my 103 fever and near total inability to breathe. I justified my trips in by convincing myself that I needed to take care of my cells (I did), and there were some experiments which really just needed to be completed (truthfully not really a big rush). Today, however, the declining state of my sanity is no longer just suspected – it is official.

Yesterday was one of those days in the lab where nothing works properly. After an 11 hour day in the lab, I finally went to finish my luciferase assay. I was told the new luminometer recently purchased by the lab was up and working (and had already been tested) so I decided to use that, instead of the crappy old one in shared resources which never seems to work properly. In the process of setting up and testing the luminometer, however, someone clearly forgot the minor eensie weensie step of ensuring that the plate was aligned. I was watching the results for each well and realizing that the results looked way off, and upon inspection of the actual plate, realized that the luminometer was squiring the luciferase reagent all over the plate, instead of actually into the wells. As such, I had to remake an entire plate and recalculate the volume for each well to ensure standardized protein concentrations, and try my luck at the shared resource luminometer. My results from that one came back just as strange (although at least this time, the reagent made it into the wells). That said, I decided to call it a day and boil down the rest of my lysate to use for a Western the next day.

This morning, at 4am, I woke up in a panic. I recalled putting the samples onto the heat block to boil them, but did I ever take them back off and move them to the freezer? My own laboratory incompetence never ceases to amaze me. I knew realistically that if the samples were still on the heat block, it wouldn’t matter whether or not I rushed to the lab – they were denatured and useless. I sat in bed, attempting to convince myself to just get a few more hours of sleep and check at a more reasonable hour. And, at 4:05am, when I was pulling on pants and brushing my teeth and preparing for a forty minute walk in the dark in pouring rain, I realized that every last ounce of sanity I ever possessed was completely destroyed by graduate school.

That’s right. I stepped into the lab this morning at 4:45am. And now, at 7:30pm, I am still in the lab waiting for a few things to finish. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised by my relative insanity – after all, at one point in my life, I actually thought that going to graduate school for a Ph.D. seemed like a good idea.