Lab Series

Photos courtesy of little Miss Joyce, avid photographer extraordinaire who excels at snapping almost any object except moving ones. Yes, those are my hands. I almost had a cramp in my arms because it was taking so long to snap those pictures and I had to freeze each pose :)


Micro pipetting DNA into the PCR mix.

Operating the thermo cycler used for the PCR reaction.

Removing the gel after electrophoresis of the PCR products.

Resolving of the products by viewing the gel under the UV transilluminator.

Updates

I've been rather busy with the research for my undergraduate thesis lately. Learning new things, perfecting techniques and overcoming 'shaky hands'. Here is a picture of my very first passable duplex PCR products run on 1.5% agarose gel. =)


On a side note, I found out that I'm α-thalassaemic... I extracted my own DNA from blood and run it in the diagnostic test of the duplex PCR and found out that I'm carrying a SEA double deletion for α-thalassamia. Maybe I'm destined to be taking this research project on. What am I working on? I'm working on the development of multiplex-PCR for detection of α-thalassaemia.

And yeah, I haven't been online much as my streamyx connection has been down since last week. Right now I'm typing this entry at my faculty using the free wifi which unfortunately is extremely slow. This is my third week of research work, hope I can survive till the end. Haha.

Happy International Thalassaemia Day

It was yesterday but it's never too late to create awareness I guess. In conjunction with the International Thalassaemia Day and with the research I'm doing for my undergraduate thesis, I'll be featuring a few links for my readers to read up on Thalassaemia. Thalassaemia is the name of a group of genetic, inherited disorders of the blood and it is widespread all over the world in certain regions and also in Malaysia. A lot of us are carriers of the gene but we do not know that and ignorance in this case will certainly not bring bliss in the future when we have a family.

The 8 May is the International Thalassaemia Day, dedicated to "Quality Treatment for all" in 2007.

On this occasion, the Thalassaemia International Federation, National Thalassaemia Associations and thalassaemia Medical Centres across the world, organise activities focused on public awareness with regards to Prevention and Clinical Care of Thalassaemia Major.

Yay?

My exams are finally over after these long, long, long weeks. Yay? Strangely, I feel rather disgruntled and the usual euphoric, 'I'm walking on air' kinda feeling is absent. Maybe it's because my exam duration was too long. Six paper spread out over three weeks with many many intervals full of boredom.

Now, I feel like I'm cheated of the opportunity to celebrate the end of my exams. Oh, people have been saying that I have celebrated enough in between my papers by going out and all that and having a very much relaxing finals but if given the option of choosing I would have chosen otherwise. It isn't the same enjoying during the exams as you have a dark, gloomy cloud hanging overcast and guilt of course just spoils all your fun. I very much rather have a concentrated dose of all that study stress rather than a long drawn out malaise that seem to kill you in episodic bursts of ennui.

And to make matters worst, I'm starting my research for my thesis on Monday. No rest for the wicked. Isn't my life full of fun?

Visual DNA would actually be chromosomes....

Got this in the mail I simply like the pictures :)

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Double traumatized

Happy Labour Day to all you labourers out there. I thought everyone would take this opportunity, getting off from work to stay at home and relax but apparently not. Where do all those hardworking people go? They congregate and form huge ass mobs in shopping complexes. I was at Mid Valley this afternoon and I tell you, people were there by the millions. Ok maybe I did exaggerate a tiny bit but there were so many people there that all the outlets selling food were full to the brim and getting an empty table was almost next to impossible. Of course, the Mid Valley fashion week didn't help lessen the crowd but whatever happened to good old fashion 'relaxing at home'? I, a semi-pseudo-sociopath, am dreadfully traumatized...

Then of course I had to go watch a movie and what did I watch? I watched The Hills Have Eyes 2 which is the single, most disgusting movie that I have ever watched. It even manage to beat The Mortuary in my opinion in its degree of graphic grossness. The gory killings with all the wanton splashes of blood were ok but the rape scene is simply disgusting. Everyone watching will forever have their sex live ruined and I am now double traumatized...

Nevertheless, I still had a good time there. Thanx very much ;)