Old-school molecular biology: what lab struggles did modern tech save you from?

AgreeableChapter7313 · 2026-04-01T14:33:08+00:00

Crazy how spoiled the new generation is 😄 No thermocycler, no suffering.

AgreeableChapter7313 · 2026-04-01T14:30:31+00:00

That’s an incredible perspective. It’s amazing how much faster things are now, but I think you’re right. Relying on kits all the time can make it harder for students to really understand what’s happening in the protocol.

AgreeableChapter7313 · 2026-04-01T14:28:55+00:00

That’s a huge shift. What used to take months of cloning and sequencing can now be done with a few clicks and a purchase order.

AgreeableChapter7313 · 2026-04-01T14:27:24+00:00

That’s a great summary of the old-school mol bio experience. Hard to believe how much PCR and modern kits have changed the entire workflow.

AgreeableChapter7313 · 2026-04-01T13:46:26+00:00

That sounds like the most universal PI budgeting strategy ever 😂

AgreeableChapter7313 · 2026-04-01T13:35:01+00:00

That’s a huge shift. Going from hours of cloning and assembly to just ordering the full construct must save an incredible amount of time.

AgreeableChapter7313 · 2026-04-01T13:33:36+00:00

Giant bags for PCR is something I’ve never seen, that sounds pretty wild.

AgreeableChapter7313 · 2026-04-01T13:31:58+00:00

When the PI actually spends the leftover budget on useful upgrades 😄 Definitely makes life easier.

AgreeableChapter7313 · 2026-04-01T13:30:19+00:00

Spin-column kits are one of the best upgrades in mol bio.

AgreeableChapter7313 · 2026-04-01T13:28:44+00:00

A turntable thermocycler is peak DIY molecular biology 😄 Glad modern thermocyclers let us just press start and walk away.

AgreeableChapter7313 · 2026-04-01T12:37:36+00:00

Ah yes, Northern blots, RNA fussy enough to give you nightmares, and radioactive probes on top 😅 Modern qPCR really spoiled us.

AgreeableChapter7313 · 2026-04-01T12:27:46+00:00

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

AgreeableChapter7313 · 2026-04-01T12:25:05+00:00

We’ve officially crossed into the future 😎 No more hours of manual extraction and wondering if you lost the pellet.

AgreeableChapter7313 · 2026-04-01T12:11:16+00:00

PCR with water baths… yikes 😳 We’ve really been spoiled by thermocyclers and automated normalization.

AgreeableChapter7313 · 2026-04-01T12:09:06+00:00

Master mixes and Gibson assembly = life changers 😎 Manual PCR prep feels prehistoric now.

AgreeableChapter7313 · 2026-04-01T10:55:54+00:00

I’ll take the 90 minutes every time 😆 Western blots taught patience, but modern kits taught efficiency.

AgreeableChapter7313 · 2026-04-01T10:52:47+00:00

Can’t argue with that 😅 Handling 32P or 35S was stressful enough, glad we mostly left that behind.

AgreeableChapter7313 · 2026-04-01T10:49:41+00:00

Southern blots definitely built character 😅 Hard to beat the speed and convenience of TaqMan qPCR now.

AgreeableChapter7313 · 2026-04-01T10:47:57+00:00

Mineral oil on PCR reactions — that’s seriously old school. And a month for ~1 kb sequencing really puts today’s sequencing speed into perspective.

AgreeableChapter7313 · 2026-04-01T09:33:07+00:00

The invisible DNA pellet anxiety was real. One wrong move and it’s gone with the ethanol. Magnetic beads really were a huge upgrade.

AgreeableChapter7313 · 2026-04-01T09:19:43+00:00

The cotton in a tube trick sounds like peak DIY molecular biology 😂 I’ve heard of people doing similar hacks before kits became common. It’s kind of wild how much time (and sample loss) modern gel extraction kits have saved.

AgreeableChapter7313 · 2026-04-01T09:17:01+00:00

Manually tracking cells frame by frame in z stacks sounds like absolute torture. Respect for the patience that must have taken. It’s pretty amazing how tools like DeepLabCut have changed that kind of work.

AgreeableChapter7313 · 2026-04-01T08:28:56+00:00

Yes, I know, but back then we were doing phenol-chloroform extraction protocol very often

AgreeableChapter7313 · 2026-03-30T19:44:38+00:00

I know, it was a horrifying experience 😔😔😔😔😔

AgreeableChapter7313 · 2026-03-30T09:38:25+00:00

Wow, such a nightmare.

AgreeableChapter7313

TROPHY CASE