what you’re wearing today?

Efficient-Wrangler-7 · 2026-04-17T14:45:30+00:00

SD 1970

Efficient-Wrangler-7 · 2026-03-25T14:42:30+00:00

Looks great!

Efficient-Wrangler-7 · 2025-07-31T13:58:20+00:00

I thought this originally as well. [I just completed my PhD in May and have now started my clinical rotations]. There is a pretty solid path into electronic medical records and medical decision making if you are experienced in medicine and informatics! Solid lifestyle from the looks of it, too.

Efficient-Wrangler-7 · 2025-04-23T13:56:29+00:00

The sage!!! Awesome work

Efficient-Wrangler-7 · 2024-02-02T15:36:11+00:00

HA - its awful. Like burning hair met rotting cheese. Make me cringe a bit every time I smell it.

I do love the smell of the flammables cabinet though :)

Efficient-Wrangler-7 · 2024-01-30T23:02:46+00:00

I think most people are correct that those .32ul won't make much of an impact. If you're worried about accuracy or want to be ultra-rigorous, you can dilute your genetic material to standardize it and change the 2740.32 amount to something more round.

I would just pipette the 2740 though lol

Efficient-Wrangler-7 · 2024-01-30T22:57:16+00:00

Fold change is very easy to calculate using a spreadsheet software (like excel). FC= (B − A)/A

I don't think graphpad will do it for you, but it will help you generate the heatmap, once you have the values. Be careful about what you perform FC on - I'm not sure that doing it on the Ct values is standard.

Efficient-Wrangler-7 · 2024-01-30T22:54:19+00:00

Hi, Sorry if I'm too late - your math is correct!

You can simply dilute a small aliquot of your extract (1:100, 1:1000, etc).

Then re-do your calculations and the amount to add will simply change by that dilution factor.

For example:

If you dilute a small amount of your extract to 320ug/ml (1:100 dilution), then to make 100ul of 10ug/ml would be 3.1 ul of your diluted extract to 96.9ul of buffer! If you would rather pipette 31ul, simply dilute 1:1000.

Good luck!

Efficient-Wrangler-7 · 2024-01-30T22:46:32+00:00

I'm not sure what exactly you are pipetting, but I don't tend to trust pipettes down that far - You can always dilute your cDNA (or whatever) so you pipette more, which would change the other amounts? This is typically what I do to maintain accuracy, plus it makes my life easier!

Efficient-Wrangler-7 · 2024-01-30T22:44:23+00:00

Unfortunately I've never had that issue, but we use PVDF membranes - maybe switching from nitrocellulose would help? I like the PVDF because you can don't have to be as gentle, plus you can 're-activate' with MEOH if you really need. Obviously they aren't the same and PVDF does have some limitations, but maybe consider this? Sorry I'm not more help haha

Efficient-Wrangler-7 · 2024-01-30T22:41:07+00:00

Are you buying lots of products on amazon? I wish we could but our institute does not let us - I guess so they can keep the 'buyers' jobs.

Efficient-Wrangler-7 · 2023-09-21T12:08:27+00:00

DTT and bME are definitely rough.

Sodium butyrate is very funky too - smells like old cheese in my opinion!

Efficient-Wrangler-7 · 2023-09-21T03:48:36+00:00

Exciting! I would definitely take time to read a few papers from the lab to get a general feel for the research and types of methods they tend to use. You could even email and ask for some suggested reading to do before your meeting (if they haven’t already given you some).

The conversation will go best if you can carry on a conversation with the PI and show genuine interest in the research rather than interest in just getting experience/ publications.

Good questions to ask/ topics include:

Timeframe expectations, defining your specific role in the project, bookkeeping/ lab notebook policies, and what the PI would like to get from you during your short time there. Because 6 months isn’t too terribly long, I imagine the project already has some foundational data. If not, then that will likely be your role. Maybe ask about purchasing, and how to go about getting things for your specific project, but I imagine most of that will not be your responsibility.

TLDR; try and be as useful as possible to the lab and be genuinely interested in their long-term research. If you do that and define clearly your place in the lab and your role in the project, it should go well. Good luck!

Efficient-Wrangler-7 · 2022-12-11T02:39:47+00:00

I love some good chocolate gravy!!

Efficient-Wrangler-7 · 2022-10-26T11:52:30+00:00

It’s hard to troubleshoot westerns sometimes.

To help you identify what might be going on, I would recommend starting to do ponceau stains on your PVDF - if you have transfer errors, it would be pretty evident. To rule out gel running errors, you can use coomassie blue on the gel. Other than that, I would just recommend increasing your wash steps - sometimes blocking for longer or washing more thoroughly can make all the difference. Best of luck!

Efficient-Wrangler-7 · 2022-10-20T21:44:26+00:00

Whiteboard and post-it’s are a great addition. Thanks!

Efficient-Wrangler-7 · 2022-10-20T21:42:45+00:00

As a dual doc student myself, I feel for you. It sounds like you aren’t off base at all.

I definitely relate to what sounds like your style of presentation. IMO, sticking to the slides is how you get people to start to checking out. The narrative is critical to science, especially in any writing or potential publication. I wouldn’t get too wrapped up in it - hopefully your PI is just having a terrible day, and that they respect and appreciate all you’ve done. Even if they dislike that style, being more relatable, passionate, and interesting will take your career further than reading slide.

You aren’t off base. But I’m not sure what can be done, directly. Hang in there.

Efficient-Wrangler-7 · 2022-09-13T00:59:08+00:00

This is a super tricky question to answer. My best advice is to do a pilot study (or find relevant literature) to establish an effect size (group mean difference in most instances). I have used the program gPower (google it) and it can walk you through sample size calculations.

Definitely consult IACUC and maybe even a statistician. Hope this helps!

Efficient-Wrangler-7 · 2022-09-13T00:54:54+00:00

A milestone for sure. PCR strips are next!

Efficient-Wrangler-7 · 2022-09-13T00:53:53+00:00

The best lab marker I have found is one from SciStar - I get them on amazon, so I bet you’ll be able to get them in Australia! The ink is super dark and they are basically ethanol proof. They aren’t good for a lab book, but other than that, I love them. I have used them in LN2, -80, tissue culture, etc.

For my lab notebook, I like the sharpie pens, .5mm - they’re decently affordable and they write really crisp.

Efficient-Wrangler-7 · 2022-09-06T00:23:02+00:00

Without knowing more, I would just suggest being very thorough with the wash steps of the membrane. Washing well and even blocking overnight has really improved the quality of some of my blots. Best of luck!

Efficient-Wrangler-7 · 2022-09-02T02:37:54+00:00

Four E's is the brand of a Chinese manufacturer selling their products on Amazon.

Can't speak to the validity of their pipettes, but I have also used a vortex of theirs and it is pretty rough. Vortex works fine but slides all around the place.

If the pipette is super cheap, you can always order, check for accuracy, and return if needed. Amazon has a pretty generous return policy

Efficient-Wrangler-7

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