Every morning I arrive at the Soderling Lab with an idea of what my goals and steps are for the day ahead. At some point within the past week, my bench mentor and I would have discussed the experiments, protocols, and concepts I would be working with, as well as any questions I might have had for him. Still, if I am unsure about where to start, I only have to ask and thus be on my way.
Some days, this means starting off in the cell culture room, beginning a days-long protocol for transfecting some NIH3T3/Cas9 cells underneath the HEK cell hood. Or, I might be observing my handiwork from days prior with the microscope, ensuring the cells look healthy. At my station, I may be gathering reagents to run a PCR, or gathering a marker, my epitubes of purified DNA, a 10uL pipette, and some TE Buffer to measure DNA concentration on the 3rd floor of the Nanaline Duke building. I might find myself in the laser room to observe the results of my immunofluorescent staining from a day or so ago, imaging my samples and preparing to quantify the cells I can see. This leads to me practicing my Excel skills in order to evaluate the consequent data, creating graphs and running statistical tests. There are also the occasions on which I visit the “mouse house”, or GSRBII, where I suit up in PPE and get to see in vitro experiments become in vivo ones, or where I attend in-house lectures and presentations by grad students and visiting scholars.
Some days, I am running one experiment after another only to realize that it already past 4pm. Others, I am performing a single task that requires my attention the entirety of the day. Regardless, I have learned something new and check in with my mentor about what’s next before heading out for the day.
