Life in the lab

First week of lab life is about to end. I wouldn't say I got off to a horrible start. I mean, yes, there has been no progress in my project and we haven't even started anything yet! It's been slow, not only for me, but everyone in my 'office' = a couple of PhD and a post-doc. Why? Because we need stem cells for our individual research, like TONS AND TONS OF 'EM! But the cell cultures in our lab are dying for reasons unknown. In other words, we don't have enough of them, not even for one person.

Today was probably the worst day of the week (or ever). First up, they found out the cells are still dying. It didn't even reach a million cells! Then, when one of the PhD students, Bee, trying to show me labelling, there was some mess-up.. but it turned out good. Then, she tried to show me microscopy, but somehow the images we got were shitty. Finally, our post-doc, Dee, showed me how to inflict injury on a mouse. So basically, he anaesthesised the mouse first so it couldn't feel any pain and then he cut the mouse open (the mouse still alive at this point). He pulled the gut out to show me the anatomy. Just when everything seemed to go well, the mouse suddenly twitched vigorously, showing sign that the anaesthetic has worn off. It looked soooo in pain, I felt so bad. I mean, imagine the mouse thrashing around with its internal organs sticking out. Dee injected some more anaesthetic, but I could clearly see its heartbeat started to slow down and I could see it taking massive, deep breath. Just a few seconds after, it died. Dee got even more annoyed, because we were supposed to inject some cells into the mouse. But, it was a really unpleasant sight. No sweet dreams for me tonight then i guess~ =S

So everybody's frustrated at the mo... except for our main boss (my supervisor) who's all positive and cheerful. We're trying to get cells from other people (who are nice enough to give us some), and I suggested my Stem Cell module tutor. I remembered from a practical I did in my SC module where we had to use some HPC Stem Cells, so my supervisor figured maybe my tutor has some more. So, she called him this afternoon to ask. And... turns out he does! And he even generously give some of them to me (ah well, I was one of the 6 people who chose his module after all~ Haha). So after long hours of nightmare, we received a good news at the end of the day. Oh by the way, did I mention I have to work from 9-5 for the next 9 weeks? Although, I did get home at around quarter to 6 today... and guess what, I'm knackered and I'm starving. Gonna grab some food, chiaozz.

Have a great day everyone!