The beginning of a new year is a great chance to make a fresh start in the lab Here are a few of my resolutions for the upcoming year: 1. I will faithfully update my lab notebook every day. No more marathon sessions once a month with a handful of post-it notes and a few [...]

I learned most of my molecular biology skills in the first lab I worked in almost 10 years ago.  I realized recently that I was in desperate need of a refresher course, so I did a little bit of reading to see if I could improve the efficiency of my cloning reactions.  In the process, [...]

In the US graduate school system, students do “research rotations” in two or more labs to get a feel for the research and lab environment before committing to one lab for their thesis research.  For big schools, it can be hard to know where to start when choosing rotation labs.  Here are a few tips [...]

Journal clubs are a great time to catch up on current literature in your field, but when prepared poorly or presented hastily, they can often lead to confusion.  Here are some simple guidelines for presenting a clear, concise paper summary. 1. Provide background Before you dive in to the data, spend a few minutes talking [...]

Going back to running to de-stress has taught Emily some surprisingly useful things about life and the lab.

My lab recently purchased the Snap i.d. rapid Western blotting system from Millipore, and it has quickly become my favorite piece of lab equipment. The standard Western blotting procedure involves blocking for thirty minutes or more, incubating in primary antibody for at least an hour, and incubating in secondary antibody for an additional hour, interspersed with multiple wash [...]

Research is a challenging field that demands a tremendous amount of skill and dedication.  We are required to be creative but logical, independent but team players, innovative but grounded, proliferative but focused.  This balancing act requires not only a very broad set of skills and talents, but also the ability to manage it all with [...]

John’s comment on Jode’s recent article here on Bitesize Bio: “Good idea on marking the rotor for 3 tubes Jode. One of those tiny (perhaps tragic) pleasures is when you drop the 3 tubes in quickly and get in spaced perfectly first time. Because usually its drop them in and then move one tube 1 [...]

Primer design can sometimes feel like more of an art than a science, and designing the best primer can significantly affect the success or failure of your experiments.  Here are a few tips on optimizing primer design for several different applications: PCR amplification/cloning One of the most common primer-based applications is cloning.  The desired amplicon [...]

Being in graduate school can be tough – deadlines, professors, and experiments, can get you down.  But there are a lot of silver linings, too.   Here are a few of my favorite things about being a grad student this summer: Since it stays light so much later, I don’t mind working a few more hours; [...]