Fourth of July! ---lab edition

Now, I'm going to be tricky and start this day off with lab work. I had to put freeze down my cell samples and run a gel (the second part was unphotographable; it's really hard to try and balance a point and shoot camera at the same time as doing stuff and making sure you don't get nasty things on your camera. Next time I will enlist a photographer).

The day begins at 8 am: here are my cells in flasks in a shaking incubator. I use E. coli cells (not the kind that makes you sick) and they grow better if they are oxygenated and shaking about.


Next stop is the autoclave room aka land of death heat pressure scariness.


These are the autoclaves. They effectively sterilize things. But they also make a TON of noise, are really hot, spew steam, smell funny, and make me want an Oompa Loompa just to autoclave things for me. They're like pressure cookers. But big enough for about three people to fit inside.


Phew! I only need ice today.


Mission accomplished.

Now, I head back to my bench:


And put my cells on ice. Since I'm looking to get protein out of these cells, and heat denatures proteins, you want to keep the cells on ice to stop proteases and degradation.


Ta-da! Now I have to mark some eppendorfs (the little tube thingies) with their appropriate names:

(they're in the green rack) --- and then put them on ice to chill (again, so we can keep the cells cool).


Now, we have to cool down the centrifuge (see a pattern here?)


It's currently at 18ºC, so it needs awhile longer to get down to 4ºC (= close to freezing)

From here on I have to spin down my cells (=spin them around so fast that they end up in the bottom of the tube as a pellet of sorts) and freeze them down at –80ºC (=COLD). Then, I have to run a gel and lyse cells and all sorts of other fun things. Stay tuned...