Arrrrrrgh gels!

There are some days when things just don’t seem to go as planned, and then there are other days when the lab reagents are just out to get you. Yesterday was one of the latter days! Yesterday I was making (trying to make) an SDS gel.

This isn’t the first time I’ve done SDS-PAGE. In the past I’ve had some lovely gels. In the past I’ve also had some gels that were truly disastrous! I have no idea what it was I did differently.

My gel yesterday: the resolving gel set in the tube I made it in really well – just not very well between the glass plates (and mystery air bubbles appeared when I know they weren’t there when I poured it); the stacking gel set between the plates but not in the tube.

It has reached the point where I now walk away from the gel leaving it to set as one has never set whilst I’ve been in the same room as it (I’m going with the theory of the watched pot etc.)

Has anyone out there got a foolproof technique for pouring these things? Otherwise I’m going to have to carry on crossing my fingers, leaving the room, and trusting to luck…

Yes it is still me and I am still here!

First off, apologies for being so quiet over the last few days.  I had a big experiment day yesterday  and so spent most of the days before it planning and rehearsing it in my head. 

It wasn’t the greatest of successes…

I ended up with 10 fold fewer cells than I wanted/needed so had to rethink my whole plan on the hoof. 

I’m sure catastrophes like this are all part of doing a PhD… :S 

Anyone out there got any stories to share?  (Uplifting or otherwise)

I’m looking at the proliferation of these cells in response to the bug I work with so will be adding the bug to them on Friday and leaving them for 72 hours before seeing if they have multiplied at all on Monday – wish me luck!

Anyway, blogging should resume as normal now with a paper-related post appearing either today or tomorrow.

You may also have noticed that the site has changed somewhat: I’m having a play around with the design of this blog, now I’m more comfortable with what I’m doing so there may be a few little changes over the next couple of days in addition to the new theme.  (I decided the old theme was far too difficult on the eyes!)

I’d love to know what you think and if you have any suggestions – just comment below (although I do now have an email address for this blog which should appear down the right hand side).