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tarigwaemirSherman Fairchild, on the Feast of St. Maximilian
192 PCR reactions, and over three-quarters of them worked! (I.e. I see bands when I run the PCR products on the gels.) To have this much success after all the mishaps that happened today (not to mention yesterday) is downright amazing.
Mistakes I've made whether due to stupidity or ignorance:
1. Add the PCR reagents in an order guaranteed to be the most time-consuming and mistake-prone. Should have maximized opportunities to use multichannel pipettor, but didn't on account of my short-sightedness.
2. Forgot to make sure that the PCR well covers (we use these strips that cover a column of wells by snapping into place) were all locked in place. There were about ten reactions that ended up evaporating overnight.
3. Let the 2.5% agarose solution cool too much before pouring, resulting in a mangled set of gels. I had to throw them out and do it all over again. >_<
Last time we were doing massive amounts of PCR, we used a liquid-handling robot, but the configuration of DNA and primers are completely different this time, and since I only need to get these reactions to run once, it's not worth the time it takes to program and test the machine. I only ran two plates, so I have at least eight more left before this phase of the project comes to an end. >_> But I am hopeful, and at this rate of success, I won't have to repeat too many reactions either.
I've been saying that I wanted to continue doing genomics research for the rest of my life, but I keep forgetting that genomics research usually involves really, really high-throughput experiments. Agh. I knew I hadn't completely squelched my academic masochism yet. >_> Nonetheless, I am so, so happy. For once, something came out right! That hasn't been happening for weeks (i.e. ever since I came back from my trip).
Yours &c.
Post-script: Finished Sethra Lavode this morning and felt like crying, although my eyes remained dry (my tear ducts are less sentimental than my heart!), and am in the middle of Sputnik Sweetheart now. Reading it almost makes me feel guilty because I feel as if the narrator panders to all my self-conceits, were it not for the fact that I come across lines like this: "Miu examined the color of the 1986 Médoc and then, as if savoring some nicely turned out prose, carefully tasted it." *_* Okay, okay, I'll stop wasting time and go label tubes now.
192 PCR reactions, and over three-quarters of them worked! (I.e. I see bands when I run the PCR products on the gels.) To have this much success after all the mishaps that happened today (not to mention yesterday) is downright amazing.
Mistakes I've made whether due to stupidity or ignorance:
1. Add the PCR reagents in an order guaranteed to be the most time-consuming and mistake-prone. Should have maximized opportunities to use multichannel pipettor, but didn't on account of my short-sightedness.
2. Forgot to make sure that the PCR well covers (we use these strips that cover a column of wells by snapping into place) were all locked in place. There were about ten reactions that ended up evaporating overnight.
3. Let the 2.5% agarose solution cool too much before pouring, resulting in a mangled set of gels. I had to throw them out and do it all over again. >_<
Last time we were doing massive amounts of PCR, we used a liquid-handling robot, but the configuration of DNA and primers are completely different this time, and since I only need to get these reactions to run once, it's not worth the time it takes to program and test the machine. I only ran two plates, so I have at least eight more left before this phase of the project comes to an end. >_> But I am hopeful, and at this rate of success, I won't have to repeat too many reactions either.
I've been saying that I wanted to continue doing genomics research for the rest of my life, but I keep forgetting that genomics research usually involves really, really high-throughput experiments. Agh. I knew I hadn't completely squelched my academic masochism yet. >_> Nonetheless, I am so, so happy. For once, something came out right! That hasn't been happening for weeks (i.e. ever since I came back from my trip).
Yours &c.
Post-script: Finished Sethra Lavode this morning and felt like crying, although my eyes remained dry (my tear ducts are less sentimental than my heart!), and am in the middle of Sputnik Sweetheart now. Reading it almost makes me feel guilty because I feel as if the narrator panders to all my self-conceits, were it not for the fact that I come across lines like this: "Miu examined the color of the 1986 Médoc and then, as if savoring some nicely turned out prose, carefully tasted it." *_* Okay, okay, I'll stop wasting time and go label tubes now.
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-08-14 10:57 pm (UTC)Glad the gels ran well. Tell me you don't have to gel-purify them all? Qiagen rocks my socks, but still.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-08-15 01:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-08-15 02:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-08-15 03:10 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-08-15 06:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-08-15 01:23 pm (UTC)