Lab Series 2

Our little Miss Photographer has been harassing me to post this batch of pictures up but I've been rather lazy. Well, here's the second series featuring DNA extraction from blood specimens using the phenol-chloroform reagant method. I was extracting nine different blood specimens and I had to stop to pose all that time. One word, "cramp"!

There are alot more pics but it takes a rather long time to upload so I picked out the beautiful ones :)


Starting with transferring the blood to another tube and washing it with tris-EDTA.


To incubating them on ice.

You can see the pellet containing the DNA after blood has been washed out.

A side view of the pellet.

Adding phenol chloroform to further isolate the DNA.

Shaking the contents with phenol chloroform turns it milky.

After centrifugation you can see the two layers of where the lower layer will be removed.

Removing the lower layer with a syringe to get as much of the contents of the layer out.

After precipitation with sodium chloride and 100% ethanol you can see the DNA floating in the solution.

And after the long steps of drying and solubilising, the DNA is ready to be quantitated using a quartz cuvette in the spectrophotometer.

Priceless

The Qaigen HotStarTaq DNA Polymerase cost RM 672 for 0.05 ml and the mistake in calculations this morning almost caused me a stroke but the feeling of joy when you see the exact DNA band you desire appearing in your gel is simply...

-priceless-

Simply divine

Michael Buble – Everything lyrics


You're a falling star, You're the get away car.
You're the line in the sand when I go too far.
You're the swimming pool, on an August day.
And you're the perfect thing to say.

And you play you're coy, but it's kinda cute.
Ah, When you smile at me you know exactly what you do.
Baby don't pretend, that you don't know it's true.
Cause you can see it when I look at you.

[Chorus:]
And in this crazy life, and through these crazy times
It's you, it's you, You make me sing.
You're every line, you're every word, you're everything.

You're a carousel, you're a wishing well,
And you light me up, when you ring my bell.
You're a mystery, you're from outer space,
You're every minute of my everyday.

And I can't believe, that I'm your man,
And I get to kiss you baby just because I can.
Whatever comes our way, ah we'll see it through,
And you know that's what our love can do.

[Chorus:]
And in this crazy life, and through these crazy times
It's you, it's you, You make me sing
You're every line, you're every word, you're everything.

So, La, La, La, La, La, La, La
So, La, La, La, La, La, La, La

[Chorus:]
And in this crazy life, and through these crazy times
It's you, it's you, You make me sing.
You're every line, you're every word, you're everything.
You're every song, and I sing along.
'Cause you're my everything.
Yeah, yeah

So, La, La, La, La, La, La, La
So, La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La

When angels sing

Thumb it

Most of us don't really notice how large a role our thumbs play in our daily lives until you hurt it that is. I had a cramp when I was preparing a 19 tube PCR mix and now my thumb is all sore. When it hurts everytime you use your thumb, you realize how frequently you rely on those babies everyday. Fortunately for me, I'm an amateur typist and I don't use my thumb at all when I type. Strangely I realize I don't use my thumb either when I'm using the mouse. Does that mean, a primitive animal with no opposable thumbs is able to operate a computer? The opposable thumbs we all so proudly possess is hailed as a very significant evolutionary change that sets us apart from the primitive animals that are lower on the evolutionary ladder. Thus it is ironic that something so advance like the computer does not need an evolutionary advancement like the thumb to operate.

Spare a thought on why animals hump trees and you'll realize another important use of the thumb. Too bad, no playing with my..... err.... shoes tonight. :P

Being sick!

I'm no longer considered as a healthy person... I was accepted as a subject for a drug bio-equivalence study and they were paying me RM310 for it but now I'm rejected because I have alpha-thalassaemia. Ok, maybe they would not have found out if I had not told them about it since I passed their haematological screening and all but it would still be a responsible thing to do. If I kept back that information wouldn't it be considered that I did not disclose everything on my health history?

How nice it would have been if I had found out that I had alpha-thalassaemia earlier on in my schooldays. I wonder whether I could have gotten a doctor's note exempting me from sports. Imagine no pendidikan jasmani sessions for me and all those ujian tara I hated so much during sports day. I admit, I'm not a very physical person at all, but that only applies when I'm in the field ;)