In the Chi Lab my days are usually filled with running a variety of assays but most of the time I am extracting RNA to run RT-PCRs and also running gels.
My day starts at around 11 am everyday where I come in and extract RNA from cells either in plates or cell pellets. Usually I extract from upwards of eight samples a week, which usually lasts me the week. By the time I am done extracting my RNA I calculate their concentration and put them in the PCR machine to convert them into cDNA to make them stable.
After putting the RNA into the machine, I usually grab lunch around 12/12:30 for the hour that it takes to generate cDNA.
Upon coming back from my lunch break, I generally run two to three RT-PCR assays testing my various cDNA samples for expression and generally leave the lab at around 6. This process is pretty repetitive and boring, but you have to stay focused otherwise you could make pipette errors leading to the whole batch to not being usable (and they take 2+ hours to run!). I love listening to music while doing my assays as it keeps me focused and brings me something to listen to aside from the clicking of the pipette over and over.
Aside from just extracting RNA and then quantifying it through RT-PCR I will also make and run gels for mouse genotyping and complete other tasks that I can assist with in the lab.
