lab life

Maybe this will become the new Friday feature at The Daily Transcript ...
Check it out. ht: Dan @ BitesizeBio
I was going to write something about the latest analysis of NIH funding in Science, but DrugMonkey did the work for me so go read his post. The bottom line is that NIH funding goes through boom-bust cycles that cause instability throughout the biomedical fields. In boom times the biomedical research fields recruit lots of grad students and postdocs (many of these recruits being foreign), after all the PIs need the work force and they now have funds to pay them. Then when these junior scientists go looking for their own lab and their first R01, the lack of funds forces many out of academia. To…
Im going to try to be as nice about this as I can: If you missed 'Dr. Horrible' the first time around, you better not make the same mistake twice. You have to deal with commercials now, but thats your own goddamn fault. Watch it, or deal with the wrath of ERV. Embedded below the fold: More viewing options (high res, pop-out, etc) available at Hulu.
I have a favour to ask of all of you. Go and fill in SciLink's Tree of Science (you'll have to sign up to SciLink first). Why? Well it is very interesting to see how different scientists are connected. And on top of that we can settle a longstanding dispute - what is the appropriate Erdos Number for biologists. You might be asking, what is the Erdos Number? or who was Paul Erdos Number? From an old post by RPM: Paul Erdos was an extremely prolific and mobile mathematician who has left a legacy in academia in the form of the Erdos Number -- a count of your "academic distance" from Erdos.…
If you are a postdoc or a junior faculty in the biomedical sciences, you have probably seen this infamous cartoon by Dent: Yesterday I was talking with my good pal Dan and we were discussing a few other great pieces by Dent. After that conversation, I did what anyone else would do, I Googled the guy. Little did I know, I had just stumbled into a gold mine! Here it is: http://dentcartoons.blogspot.com/ Proceed with caution.
I've sign into yet another sciency LinkedIn type site. This time it's Epernicus. I've had a good look at the site, it's about on par with SciLink with some exceptions. 1) The scientific genealogy application on SciLink is much better then that on the Epernicus site. Why? You can extensively modify the tree beyond your own personal connections. Bigger trees are better (more info). 2) The profile page of Epernicus lists all your publications in chronological order - SciLink take note. So by my quick score it's 1-1. I guess like every other epic battle (VHS vs. Beta, HD DVD vs. blu-ray and AC…
Inspired by a conversation with Awesome Mike. Your science career, what type of video game is it? At times it might resemble a labyrinth full of demons that you must slay. (Or maybe it's like Grand Theft Auto? Well since I've never played that game nor Halo, I'll stick to the metaphorical game that's running through my head.) Level 1: Undergraduate The first level is the easiest. Stay focused and you'll get to the end. Final monster at the end of the round? Those exam finals? Psht. Level 2: Grad Student This level bit trickier then the previous one. The first major obstacle is choosing the…
Its summertime. And when you work in the lab, summertime means summer undergraduate students! Theyre like any lab member-- sometimes theyre good, sometimes theyre bad, sometimes they are somewhere in between-- but no matter what, its a great opportunity for them to try out Research World and for us (grad students) to get mentoring experience. Our summer student this year is a ton of fun! Not only has she been incredibly helpful to me in the lab, her personality meshes perfectly with our labs dynamics. Example: Tomorrow summer undergrad has to give a presentation on her project to the other…
My lab is pretty 'old school'. We do basic biochemical procedures-- cloning/subcloning, PCR/RT-PCR/RT-PCR/RTRT-PCR, pulse-chases, western blots. My flow cytometry is about as crazy as we get. We also do those 'old school' procedures the 'old school' way. We dont use Qiagen kits to extract our plasmids, we do cesium chloride gradients. We also make sure to use real film to visualize our radioactive pulse-chase experiments and our western blots. Oh we also do it the 'new school' way and take pictures electronically, but there are real benefits to keeping film in your lab notebook: You have…
The trip to Toronto was great. I met a lot of great people there and I think that I made a good impression on the members of the Biochemistry Department at the U of T. Since this was my first real job interview, I didn't know exactly what to expect. In the end I decided to "let myself go" and enjoy talking shop with all the excellent researchers I met. Science is for the curious, and at times like these its best to let your inner urge to learn and discuss to take control. Go out and explore. And that's what I did over the course of three days. In between all these appointments I had the…
Yesterday I had a great time visiting the biochemistry department at the University of Toronto. I met up with Lary Moran of Sandwalk who gave me a tour of the place. (We also got caught up in a huge discussion that culminated in a bet ... I will disclose the details at a future date.) Later that night I met up with some local bloggers, Philip of Biocurious, Eva of Easternblot and John of Confession of a Science Librarian. Eva should be posting some pictures at some point. I'm going to start preparing for today's talk. Wish me luck.
Well I won't be doing much blogging in the coming weeks. Last Wednesday I found out that I will be giving a talk this Thursday at the University of Toronto. This news came to me while I was smack-dab in the middle of one of these huge experiments. Of course the experiment failed (but I did learn something!) The trip to Maple Leaf land means that I will be missing our upcoming New England RNA Data Club (aka NERD Club). It looks like I'll be landing in Toronto Tuesday night. So Wednesday I'll be reconnecting with my homeland (and practicing my powerpoint presentation). Incidentally the title of…
Sorry for the slim pickings this week, folks, but Ive had a few adventures in the lab this week... I seem to have had lots of strange adventures since I grabbed onto the coattails of Bossman a few years ago... I didnt just jump straight from college to grad school to the lab of an established PI. I took an alternative route, and have gained some 'lab smarts' analogous to 'street smarts'-- stuff you dont know how/what to do until you live through it. Tips/Tricks for setting up international collaborations How to part gracefully with a former employer How to set up a new laboratory, from…
No I'm not dead. I have been performing some tricky bucket biochemistry, traveling to Montreal every second weekend, taking care of the upcoming season of NERD talks, dealing with job applications, supervising a rotation student and will soon be supervising an undergrad. How do young PIs have time to blog????
I always joke to summer students and rotating grad students: Your lab notebook. Keep it up to date. If you get hit by a bus tomorrow, I expect to be able to pick up exactly where you left off. Heart attacks happen. Car accidents happen. Random acts of violence happen. But we stand on each others shoulders in science. We build upon the hard work of others, and expect others to build upon our work. So you have to plan for crazy shit (like getting hit by a bus) so all of your hard work isnt lost forever and everyone else is screwed. Well, the news just reported that Senator Kennedys…
I've been receiving requests from the newest networking program. I've given up fighting and just joined in. So what's special about this new networking site? Well, in contrast to LinkedIn there are special features that are more applicable to academics in general. For example you can add papers and awards to your profile. And unlike Facebook's SciBook, SciLink is a true science networking tool. It also comes with a cool scientific genealogy application. (Evil Gomez - someone has finally implemented your idea!) There are some patches that the developers need to iron out, but overall it looks…
What a week. I spent half of it at University of Montreal's IRIC, or Institut de recherche en immunologie et en cancerologie. I was truly impressed. This new center was the brain child of half a dozen University of Montreal professors. They wanted to build a state of the art facility to tackle cancer and immune disease. Within a few years they received a ton of money from several sources and had built the main edifice. Today the institute has 22 labs, many of which are headed by young investigators who are performing outstanding work. Click here for a movie clip of the interior. Highlights…
I'll type something for you quickly as I have a couple of minutes. This week has been a little crazy. I've been preparing my talk in Montreal and gearing up to perform a major experiment, some old school bucket biochemistry. Baymate performed a similar experiment using dog pancreas, and I need to repeat the protocol with a human cell line. I've already gone through the protocol twice and had to rethink some of the details. Right now the big experiment will start Sunday night continue through "Patriots' Day" and finish some time on Tuesday. So if you are wondering why you won't hear from me…
Well I finaly synthesized and purified the magic protein. Yesterday I used this protein in an experiment that was dictated to me by the ghost of Ockham. I should know the result this afternoon.