For me, each day of the week in the Caron lab is dedicated to a different procedure with the overall goal of generating data for my project. Thanks to my dedicated mentor who goes to lab on Sunday, I am able to run three rounds of BRET in a week.
On Mondays, I transfect the cells that my mentor split the day before. I also split cells for transfections on Tuesdays. On Tuesdays, I split the transfected cells to a 96 well plate for BRET and transfect the cells split on Monday. On Wednesday, I am able to finally use the BRET machine and see if my transfections and plating reveal any interesting results. Like is expected for good science, I try to achieve many rounds of similar results with BRET assay to assure that the data is not due to error on my part. Thus, I run BRET on Thursdays and Fridays as well.
While the BRET assay is my main objective in lab, it is not the only thing I do. Each time I transfect, I have to use some DNA from the stocks we keep in the fridge. After many rounds of BRET, the DNA starts to run low. Therefore, I occasionally engage in cloning projects in order to make more DNA. Sometimes, I am lucky that other people in the lab have glycerol stocks of the DNA I need. If so, I am able to utilize a Qiagen MidiPrep in order to extract more DNA. However, if no glycerol stocks are available, I have to transform the DNA in bacteria and let the bacteria grow up copies for me.
In addition to all of these small mini cloning projects, I did partake in a fairly lengthy cloning project that lasted an entire week. I attached a fluorescent probe to the D3 receptor.
So, this is how I have been keeping busy in lab. Sometimes, if I finish everything I have to in a day (or if there ends up being too few cells to split), my mentor will keep me busy with random projects that usually involve new techniques. One thing is for sure, there is never a boring day in the Caron lab.
