Lab-Life

I’m very disappointed by this BSN meeting. This event is organised every 2 years so you might expect some quality standards. Well, don’t expect too much … (don’t expect anything, in fact). Morning talks were ok, nothing more: it was not better nor worse than any other congress. But the poster session was not organised at all and there was no support from senior scientists … Moreover, authors of about 1/3 of posters didn’t even deign to come and hang a poster! Most of senior scientists left before the afternoon poster sessions (usually, questions from seniors are more useful than other students’ questions); maybe 2-3 seniors were left (for the whole Belgium!!!). And the final touch, lunch was not free (not even sandwiches!) although we paid 45€ for registration (free for members - membership is 12€ per year for students). Instead we were redirected to the UAntwerp canteen … Are they not smart enough to find a sponsor? I think it would have been better to attend the Neuroinformatics Meeting only. ...

Last week, our proteomic group did a 2D of a purified protein but, unfortunately, it seemed we had a contamination. So, this week-end, we performed blank tests in order to see if the contamination came from our experiment (or from the purification). We tested our fluorescent markers and different 1D strip holders. At a normal gain, the image looks fine: contamination doesn’t come from the 2D But when I increase the gain, the image (and thus our gel) is really contaminated! :-( We really have to look where did the contamination happen! Look at this: ...

Since a few days, I am back to my previous laboratory to collect some more samples. While looking after my rats, I measured the noise level with a dBmeter. The conditions are: 8.30 am doors are left open (except in the housing unit) as it is usually the case five samples per room: one in each corner of the room (without moving any furniture) and one in the middle measures taken at ear height device: YF-20 (YFE) ...

It will be possible on this Saturday March 17th, 2007! For the EDAB Brain Awareness Week, one of my lab is organizing some conferences and you’ll also have the opportunity to visit the lab and see demonstrations on experiments we do and how we do. One of my mentors, Dr. P. Leprince, will tell (and show) you how we can identify proteins and identify their roles. Other workshops include microscopy, electrophysiology, behaviour. Conference topics include stem cells, drug addiction, injuries in the brain. You can have more info on the lab website (look for our activities, in French). ...

Last week, I received broken vials with(out) my antibodies. This week, as the company promised, I received new ones (not broken, this time). Thanks to our technician, I was able to get colourful western blots (using the ECL Plex system) :-)

In science, you have to justify nearly all your assertions and this is done by citing another scientific paper, called a “reference”. With practise and advices of some people, I arrived to a satisfactory references management system I’ll explain below. My “problem” is that in the academic world where I work nearly everyone use EndNote or Reference Manager, two proprietary reference management software for MS-Windows. And I want to use the simple yet powerful BibTeX system. ...

I was eager to receive some new antibodies for western blotting (I was waiting for them since December 2006!). They finally arrived on Wednesday but everything was broken inside! :-( A plastic shell was supposed to protect the precious vials (about 300US$ each) but even that was broken. I immediately phoned the company and they promised me new vials for next Wednesday. Suddenly, it’s possible to get them in one week … Well, let’s see what I’ll get on that day …

My python script pyP2B was command-line only. Tonight, I played for the first time with Tk, re-wrote pyP2B as a class and thus added a GUI. Its webpage is updated ; the archive containing both command-line and GUI versions is here: pyP2B.tar.gz (3kb).

When I began my Ph.D., I don’t know if Flickr existed but, at least, I didn’t know it existed. So I didn’t know about this PhD vs Girlfriend comparison nor these work/motivation/courbature vs time charts. I didn’t get a canned Ph.D. where all the techniques are already used since a long time in the lab but then it would have been too easy! Finally, after my defense, if I have the opportunity to go to the USA, I’ll get this smart car (or the plate, at least). ...

The whole day, I was busy working with DeCyder, a software to analyse spots of proteins in 2D gels. I hope I won’t dream of small red/yellow/green dots tonight: The software use a 3D representation of the spot. If we change this view too fast (either by moving it or by quickly browsing through spots), the graphic diplay freezes and we fall back to an ugly VGA mode (screenshot below). Since the morning, the computer crashed 7 times! I reduced the screen resolution to 1024x768pixels in 24bits colours and it seems to work correctly now. :-) ...