A day in the lab
Using 3D-printed equipment to standardise experiments
Sometimes you just have to improvise in the lab...
ReadUsing a Nobel prize-winning technique
Today in the lab I was breaking up bacteria to extract a gene I inserted into them...
ReadProcessing muscle biopsies for microscopy
Today in the lab I was mounting muscle biopsies on microscope slides after immunostaining them...
ReadUsing colour to determine the pH
Today in the lab I was doing an experiment involving brain cells kept in cell culture flasks...
ReadPreparing a protein for long-term storage
Today in the lab I was preparing a stock of a protein for long-term storage...
ReadAmplifying genes quickly using bacteria
Today in the lab I was breaking up bacteria to extract a gene I inserted into them...
ReadUsing virues to transfer genes to a cell
Today in the lab I was using a virus to transfer a specific gene into a mammalian cell...
ReadRunning A LOT of quantitative PCR
Today in the lab I was running a lot of quantitative PCR (qPCR) plates...
ReadHandling liquid nitrogen safely
Today in the lab I was using liquid nitrogen to snap-freeze brain tissue...
ReadSpeeding up pipetting
Today in the lab I was using a multichannel pipette to speed up a biochemical assay...
ReadA biochemical assay to determine protein concentrations
Today's experiment was a biochemical assay to determine the concentration of a protein released by brain cells...
ReadPCR and gel electrophoresis to determine genotypes
Today in the lab I was doing genotyping. Samples of DNA were collected from the latest litters of the lab's colonies and their genotype had to be determined to check which of them carry genetic mutations in specific genes...
ReadGel electrophoresis to visualise DNA
Today in the lab I was doing some genotyping to determine which DNA samples contained a specific mutation...
ReadRemoving the meninges from the brain
Today in the lab I spent a long time dissecting some brains. During the dissection, I need to remove the meninges before I can proceed to collect the parts of the brain that are used for glial cell culture...
ReadCryopreservation of brain cells
Today in the lab I spent a long time cryopreserving some brain cells for later use. It took me approximately 3 hours without breaks to prepare only 10 samples...
ReadPurifying plasmid DNA from bacterial cultures
Today in the lab I was doing a miniprep experiment. This experiment allows the purification of plasmid DNA from bacterial cultures...
ReadDissecting neonatal brains to get glial cells
Today in the lab I was dissecting neonatal brains, in order to get glial cells and culture them for my experiments...
ReadInspecting microglia dissected out of neonatal brains
Today in the lab I was looking at brain microglia which were isolated from a mixed culture of both microglia and astrocytes three days earlier...
ReadPhase-contrast microscopy
One of the things I did today in the lab, was to check the health of some cells growing in culture, and to estimate their numbers because they need to be of a certain confluency before I can use them for any experiments...
ReadBacterial transformation
Today in the lab I did a bacterial transformation experiment, then left the bacteria to grow on agar plates overnight, so that they would clone themselves and produce multiple copies of a gene I am interested in...
ReadInoculating bacterial cultures
Today in the lab, I inoculated four flasks of bacterial cultures, which will be left overnight for the bacterial to clone themselves and produce multiple copies of a piece of DNA that I put into them...
ReadImmunohistochemistry of brain slices and confocal microscopy
Today in the lab I was using the confocal microscope to look at different cell types on brain slices...
ReadAnalysing the calcium activity of the white matter
Today in the lab, I was analysing the calcium activity of the white matter in the corpus callosum (the area of the brain that connects the two hemispheres)...
ReadImmunocytochemistry of cultured cells and confocal microscopy
Today in the lab I was using the confocal microscope to look at different cell types in culture...
ReadAnalysing the electrical activity of neurons using computer code
Today in the lab, I spent a lot of my time on the computer, analysing the electrical activity of neurons that I had previously recorded during my electrophysiology experiments...
ReadRecording neuronal activity using electrophysiology equipment
Today in the lab I was doing an electrophysiology experiment, specifically known as the patch-clamp technique...
ReadHistopathological analysis of brain slices following a stroke
Today in the lab I was analysing H&E stained brain slices to identify histopathological changes following a stroke...
ReadProcessing brain slices for microscopy
Today's experiment in the lab was all about staining brain slices with Hematoxylin & Eosin (H&E) for microscopy. In the timelapse below, you can see me performing the experiment, which lasted about 3.5 hours...
ReadMRI image analysis to assess stroke damage
Today in the lab, I spent the entire time doing image analysis, using the MRI scans collected during an experiment that was testing possible new treatments for stroke...
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