When first learning laboratory techniques, it’s important to start with the ones that will help you keep your front teeth. We’ve discussed some of the best ways to fit into a lab, but often the worst offenders don’t even realize what they’re doing wrong. So this is directed at the select few who are making life difficult for the rest of us. If it turns out you’re “accidentally” performing one of these, it might be better to knock it off before getting knocked out…
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5. Never wash your dishes
Cleaning up after yourself is a lesson that anyone who’s survived the rigors of kindergarten knows. That should qualify most of us. So, despite what your roommates may have convinced you of, the main function of a sink is not to hold dirty dishes – especially in a lab. Unfortunately, performing laboratory techniques successfully requires more than hope and love. Specifically, it requires those dirty gel plates you just put in the sink. Stop wasting time and pick up a sponge…
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4. “Borrow” everyone’s buffers and never make your own
Most of us will bend over backward to help a labmate. Experimental help here, some buffer there – usually the favor is returned and it all comes out in the wash, as they say. However, while people like feeling helpful, they don’t like feeling taken advantage of. So if you notice that most of your sentences start with “I’m just gonna borrow a little…” it may be time to try out “I made you a new stock of…”
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3. Jump onto an instrument when someone else reserved it
A well-planned experiment requires more choreography than Swan Lake. Reagents are prepared and instruments are reserved well in advance. This is called “planning.” Just as laboratory techniques can’t run on hope alone, experiments almost always require an element of timing. Penalizing others for your inability to plan is not the answer.
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2. Use up the last of a reagent without reordering
In some labs, ordering supplies is the job of one person and can be as easy as telling that person “We need more ____.” In other labs, it may feel more like filling out a loan application followed by a stern grilling from the Congressional Budget Office. In either case, you have a responsibility to replace reagents that are low or empty. “Low” can be a grey area, but you know 70mg in a 5kg container of Tris is low. We realize ordering takes effort and adds another line on your to-do list, but please – pull your weight. Place the order.
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1. Steal a labmate’s project
The granddaddy of all sinful laboratory techniques. Nothing can devastate lab moral than someone who’s cherry-picking the projects that are actually moving forward. This is unconscionable and inexcusable. Developing into a great scientist requires the ability to think for yourself and those thoughts should not be “Hey, I should start working on Katie’s project because that’s a gold mine.” If you’re struggling with your project, maybe now’s a good time to refocus and set some new goals for yourself. Be aware of project boundaries and stay within them.
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Like the Great Barrier Reef, the lab environment is a precious ecosystem. If everyone follows the rules and gets along, the lab will be there years from now for others to enjoy. But all it takes are a few offenders to ruin the fun for everyone…
Friday, July 16, 2010
Innovative Device Mimics the Human Lung, on a Microchip
Developed by researchers at Harvard University (Harvard, Boston, MA, USA), Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA, USA), and Children's Hospital Boston (MA, USA), the novel lung-on-a-chip microdevice takes a new approach to tissue engineering by placing two layers of living tissues--the lining of the lung's air sacs and the blood vessels that surround them--across a porous, flexible boundary. Air is delivered to the lung lining cells, a rich culture medium flows in the capillary channel to mimic blood, and cyclic mechanical stretching of the structure mimics breathing.
To determine how well the device replicates the natural responses of living lungs to stimuli, the researchers tested its reaction to inhaled living E. coli bacteria. They introduced the bacteria into the air channel on the lung side of the device and at the same time streamed white blood cells (WBCs) through the channel on the blood vessel side. The lung cells detected the bacteria and, through the porous membrane, activated the blood vessel cells, which in turn triggered an immune response that ultimately caused the WBCs to move to the air chamber and destroy the bacteria. The investigators, however, have not yet demonstrated the system's capability to mimic gas exchange between the air sac and bloodstream.
Created using a microfabrication strategy that utilizes clear rubbery materials, the device--which is about the size of a standard rubber eraser--is translucent, providing a window into the inner-workings of the human lung without having to invade a living body. As such, it has the potential to be a valuable tool for testing the effects of environmental toxins, absorption of aerosolized therapeutics, and the safety and efficacy of new drugs. The study describing the new device was published in the June 25, 2010, issue of Science.
“We really can't understand how biology works unless we put it in the physical context of real living cells, tissues, and organs,” said senior author Donald Ingber, M.D., Ph.D., founding director of Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. “The ability of the lung-on-a-chip device to predict absorption of airborne nanoparticles and mimic the inflammatory response triggered by microbial pathogens provides proof-of-principle for the concept that organs-on-chips could replace many animal studies in the future.”
“The ability to recreate realistically both the mechanical and biological sides of the in vivo coin is an exciting innovation,” commented Rustem Ismagilov, Ph.D., a professor of chemistry at the University of Chicago (IL, USA), who specializes in biochemical microfluidic systems. “The potential to use human cells while recapitulating the complex mechanical features and chemical microenvironments of an organ could provide a truly revolutionary paradigm shift in drug discovery.”
To determine how well the device replicates the natural responses of living lungs to stimuli, the researchers tested its reaction to inhaled living E. coli bacteria. They introduced the bacteria into the air channel on the lung side of the device and at the same time streamed white blood cells (WBCs) through the channel on the blood vessel side. The lung cells detected the bacteria and, through the porous membrane, activated the blood vessel cells, which in turn triggered an immune response that ultimately caused the WBCs to move to the air chamber and destroy the bacteria. The investigators, however, have not yet demonstrated the system's capability to mimic gas exchange between the air sac and bloodstream.
Created using a microfabrication strategy that utilizes clear rubbery materials, the device--which is about the size of a standard rubber eraser--is translucent, providing a window into the inner-workings of the human lung without having to invade a living body. As such, it has the potential to be a valuable tool for testing the effects of environmental toxins, absorption of aerosolized therapeutics, and the safety and efficacy of new drugs. The study describing the new device was published in the June 25, 2010, issue of Science.
“We really can't understand how biology works unless we put it in the physical context of real living cells, tissues, and organs,” said senior author Donald Ingber, M.D., Ph.D., founding director of Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. “The ability of the lung-on-a-chip device to predict absorption of airborne nanoparticles and mimic the inflammatory response triggered by microbial pathogens provides proof-of-principle for the concept that organs-on-chips could replace many animal studies in the future.”
“The ability to recreate realistically both the mechanical and biological sides of the in vivo coin is an exciting innovation,” commented Rustem Ismagilov, Ph.D., a professor of chemistry at the University of Chicago (IL, USA), who specializes in biochemical microfluidic systems. “The potential to use human cells while recapitulating the complex mechanical features and chemical microenvironments of an organ could provide a truly revolutionary paradigm shift in drug discovery.”
Genetically Engineered Tobacco Plants Produce Human Collagen
A method has been developed for genetically engineering tobacco plants to produce human type I collagen, a material in great demand in the field of regenerative medicine.
Typically, collagen is prepared from animal sources or, more rarely, from human cadavers. In either case, the process is time consuming and costly, and the end product is likely to contain viral or bacterial contaminants or even prions.
An advanced genetic engineering method for collagen production, which demands the coexpression of five separate genes, was originally published in the August 14, 2009, online edition of the journal Biomacromolecules. In this paper investigators at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Rehovoth, Israel) described how two human genes encoding recombinant heterotrimeric collagen type I (rhCOL1) were successfully coexpressed in tobacco plants with the human prolyl-4-hydroxylase (P4H) and lysyl hydroxylase 3 (LH3) enzymes, responsible for key posttranslational modifications of collagen. Plants coexpressing all five vacuole-targeted proteins generated intact procollagen yields of nearly 2% of the extracted total soluble proteins. Plant-extracted rhCOL1 formed thermally stable triple helical structures and demonstrated biofunctionality similar to human tissue-derived collagen supporting binding and proliferation of adult peripheral blood-derived endothelial progenitor-like cells.
For this groundbreaking work senior author Dr. Oded Shoseyov, professor of plant sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was recently awarded the prestigious Kaye Innovation Award, presented to outstanding researchers who have developed innovative methods and inventions with good commercial potential that will benefit the university and society.
Typically, collagen is prepared from animal sources or, more rarely, from human cadavers. In either case, the process is time consuming and costly, and the end product is likely to contain viral or bacterial contaminants or even prions.
An advanced genetic engineering method for collagen production, which demands the coexpression of five separate genes, was originally published in the August 14, 2009, online edition of the journal Biomacromolecules. In this paper investigators at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Rehovoth, Israel) described how two human genes encoding recombinant heterotrimeric collagen type I (rhCOL1) were successfully coexpressed in tobacco plants with the human prolyl-4-hydroxylase (P4H) and lysyl hydroxylase 3 (LH3) enzymes, responsible for key posttranslational modifications of collagen. Plants coexpressing all five vacuole-targeted proteins generated intact procollagen yields of nearly 2% of the extracted total soluble proteins. Plant-extracted rhCOL1 formed thermally stable triple helical structures and demonstrated biofunctionality similar to human tissue-derived collagen supporting binding and proliferation of adult peripheral blood-derived endothelial progenitor-like cells.
For this groundbreaking work senior author Dr. Oded Shoseyov, professor of plant sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was recently awarded the prestigious Kaye Innovation Award, presented to outstanding researchers who have developed innovative methods and inventions with good commercial potential that will benefit the university and society.
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