Tkde keje

This is what happens, when one has too much time in the lab. LOL. Nah... in truth we were setting up the lan for the students. Its intestinal nematodes, basically worms that thrives in your intestines. OOOH how disgustingly intrigiuing :)
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Got The Band

Finally, I got the wanted DNA band, which means the restriction enzymes has done its job, which means the DNA that I needed has been cut from the plasmid that I have inserted it in. If all goes well, I will cut that 789 band and then move on to the next step. If I am not mistaken I will transformed into into pCDNA + plasmid/vector.

Marker

Hmm well, this is the gel, that I told people that I was running. The gel itself is made from agarose, almost similar to the one we made kuih at kenduri (the red rose syrup flavoured). When I say running the gel, I meant running electricity through at a desired voltage. I am checking on my DNA to see if it has been cut properly. We used enzymes that is sourced from bacteria to cut the DNA. The first and last lane are the marker to show us the weight of the DNA. The DNA that was cut, and separated is the one that weigh the less or the one that travelled down the most. As you can see, there is band down on the lanes, which means the DNA has been successfully cut. Sorry for being so slow, but I think this turned out okay, despite the marker band lanes are not separated nicely. So far the weight of the DNA is close to what I need. I think this is what Wendy and Dr Syahril wants, I am still bit worried about the DNA marker though.

Band

Where is the band? Yes, there seem to be band, but only the marker band on the first lane on the left and other genomic band on the left. Plasmid band? Where got? Why? because we did not used a plasmid DNA extraction kit. At least the marker works, there is genomic DNA, but the plasmid that we need is not. Hmm... we have to start culturing it in LB broth then extract it using a plasmid kit. All this is done by today and tomorrow. See, I am not that slow you know, I can go fast if I choose to...

Simple As That

How many seconds are there in 16 hours. 960…. Yep… that was what I inserted in the thermocyler machine on how long I want it to reheat my PCR tubes. If you are the type that gets math quite fast, then you know off the bat, that is WRONG!!!!! Well some how when I wrote it down on paper, I forgotten that there is 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minute in an hour. I skiped one of the 60s number in my calculation. So instead of happily waiting for the reaction to finish at 11.30, since I started it around 8.30. I came to the lab at 10.30 to see the reaction has already finished. I sensed something was wrong, but I brushed it off, only when I wanted to start my second experiment on the same machine but with a different time spand, it dawn on me.. hmm 5 minutes in seconds is 300… wait.. but I inserted 960 yesterday for the other reaction.. CRAP!!!! 960 is only 16 min..so I waited all night (not wait la kan) slept all morning (that I did) but only to find out, nothing had happened..OUCH!!!! that stinks really bad.. So I got 4 reactions that has not reacted fully, my supervisor told me, test it first, but don’t rush into it. How ironic… I know I sense other people are telling me to go faster underneath their breath when they speak to me, but to have someone to tell me to slow down.. ooooooh.. Irony is cruel…

To Remember What Is Worth

Is good to remember the things you almost forget. Time you enjoy with friends, time that you enjoy with your loved ones. Its not always smooth sailing all the ways, there will be bumps along the way. Which how life supposed to be right? Nothing wrong with being emo now and then, just as long you remember to snap out of it

On other notes, I do hope these are positive clones of DNA insert. I forgot to read, on how long my culture could last in the LB broth.... Ouch, I managed to do DNA extraction on two LB broth. I got 6 more, in the fridge.

Leak

I came to the lab on Thursday to find out a the lab floor was covered in water. The culprit, was the plumbing on the lab above us leaked into our ceiling

Our microscope room floor was covered with water.

We had some really expensive equipments here, luckily most of it were covered with plastic and thank goodness none of the equipment short circuited.

There was so much water, it spilled out the door an into our main lab area.

Rye, En Nawi and I took turns moping up the excess water since the cleaners never made it to our lab.

Cut into pieces

This a bag with the frozen cat inside.

A pouch containing some surgical tools

I first peel the head of the cat to reveal the skull.

It was tedious since the skull in incredibly hard and my scalpel blade kept breaking off

So I decided to get some new tool, which includes a saw, some knifes and a knife sharpener.

I need to saw off the skull before I can reach the brain.

Then I tried to pry the pieces open.

I am trying to pick out the shrunken brain. I put it in ziplock bag for future use.

Then I cut the gut open so that I could get the lungs, heart, and liver.

My lab mate help to photograph me in action. Beside he was stress out because of his work so he decided watching me hacking a frozen cat would be a perfect way to unwind. :p

I can't do this.

I can't do this.

I can't performed the dissection of the frozen cats, rabbits and mouse deer (at least that is what my advisor told me of the content in the big black plastic bags)

Not because the only dissection I have done was on mice, not because I have no clue which part of the muscle to keep, not because I don't know is it possible to keep the frozen blood, not because the decomposing cats strangely smells like ripe mangoes.

But its because the animals was frozen solid.. and I can't cut through it. Also, when I am nervous I tend to sweat, and when one wears a spectacle while sweating the sweat gets into one's eye. Too add that problem, my specs kept fogging up from my own breath...

This is like CSI, but I am working on frozen carcasses.. Hmm this is like a pathologist work, which is basically studying the tissues after the organism death. Hmm.. forensic kinda of work you might say. A colleague of mine and my co advisor said forensic entomology is a good field to jump into because there not many of those in that qualification in Malaysia..

Hmm.. perhaps I am thinking too forward, let me get through cutting out this animals first...

2 days

Sky after the Storm

It was a crazy two day for me. Is it crazier than some other days, in more ways than one. However it was very refreshing to break from the norm.

It started yesterday with a presentation from my lab mates. It was a simple class presentation. My friend had to present Toxoplasma gondii which my research topic. It was kinda intimidating to me. Well I have to show that I understand what my parasite is. It was kinda surreal to me, that I was dealing with a level 2 microorganism, which is considered quite dangerous. Laboratory accidents are one of the caused for Toxoplasmosis. I handle it quite carefree despite the dangers, kinda like Madam Curie with her radioactive research. I try not to be too mean to my friend but at the same time I try to be fair when commenting on it. If I were up there I don’t like it if the panel started to drill me harshly.

My Viva is turned into a Van

I got dead things behind me

I could smell it

Then I was off to UKM in Kuala Lumpur, right next to IMR. My advisor requested me to pick up a some serums and cat carcass. It did not occur me that it would be a nightmare. I thought there would be only 3 bags, to my horror, there was 7 bags, with 3 of it is filled with a dead frozen cat. All of 7 bags where thawed.. and melting.. in my small black Viva, in a hot afternoon going through a traffic jam… Myself, my car and my soul smells like dead cat. Ah.. the things we do as graduated student. Its kinda funny that his past students also did the same thing. My co advisor had to carry a dead lizard while his other colleague under my advisor had to a carry some mosquitoes. Some escaped and he had to open the car window to let some go..

Later that night I was going to visit my friend that had to be admitted to hospital and I was supposed give his mother a ride. That was the plan at first until my friend told me, that that night a bunch of our friends will come too, so that it won’t be suitable for his mother and his cousin to come over. However his mother wanted to surprised my friend and insist on coming over, while my friend call me and said his mom won’t come over. So I was stuck in between. It got a bit chaotic on my behalf but in the end, his mother finally listen to him… Its kinda hard to say no to a sweet old lady okay… hopefully she is not mad at me.. :p

Load of antibiotics to fight my friends tonsil infection.

Finally this morning I had a rude awakening. Someone called me and asked me where I have been yesterday and if I want to see her legs. It sound like my friend, but since while I was half asleep I did not have the energy to swear. I just kept very silence.. until they finally cracked up. It was actually the Pagi Show crew of Fly FM. I forgotten I submitted an entry out of boredom to give me a Wake Up Call. I never thought they took me seriously since the reason that I put for them to call me is “I just want to wake up”…. That was real eye opener .

Foot note: I have removed the anonymous option in my comment form. I mean anonymous is just a way for cowards or people who don't like you to comment on your blog. Most of the time the comments was made to "aib kan org" or just to insult. I think that is normal if you have blog. Like I said before, when you got people who don't like you or know you and starts to read your blog, you know there are many people reading it. Oh well anon guest , I don't blame you for your callous comment, since you don't even know me or did you even try to introduce yourself. Anyways thank you for reading or having the time to comment.

Cry Me A River

I try so hard, but fall so far in the end it does not even matter. Can't live, can't live without you. Why isn't there some one try to find me. Here I am once again, I am falling into pieces. Its too late to apologize. How do I, get through this night with you. My heart will go on. It too little too late. I am tired of crying all night long till my eyes are swollen and read. You both made this happened. Both of you...........

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Aspirin and Shrimp

Hahaha, no lah, it will be crazy for me to cry for someone till my eyes get swollen like that. That is my friends, is an allergic reaction. There were two things that I ate today that were allergic prone. First it was the fried shrimp that I had for lunch. Second, I took two tablets of aspirin to relieve my headache. The result was, headache was gone, but my eyes were swollen. The picture of myself in the green shirt was at the onset of the symptom, while the picture of myself in a red shirt was the outcome after 1 hour. The swelling got worst, I can still see even though the swollen have made my eyes looked very squint. A jab of injection at the doctor and some more anti histamine should reduce the swelling. However, this resulted in me being very lethargic. I wanted to do some work, but I can't drive to UPM for the fear of being slotted under the lorry. I have a presentation on Tuesday, thank god I written my skeleton on the whiteboard. I was supposed to erased it, because I thought I would return tonight. I am struggling just to keep awake now. Tomorrow I have Ps2 marathon with a dear friend. I must finish my slides tomorrow..

Parasite Lab Lunch

Dr Malina, my medical helminthology lecturer treated all of us at parasite lab to lunch. Our other staff that is furthering his study in the UK. Mr Roslaini (soon to be Dr Roslaini) is going back to the UK after a few weeks in Malaysia

From the furthest person, Mr Ros talking, Dr Ngah listening, Kak Hanim nodding.

Prof Wan, my supervisor, Dr Malina, Kak Ruhil's and Zouk's supervisor, and Dr Rukman, Rai's supervisor.

Sorry Rai, you were in front on the light, I can't get a clearer picture of you.

Forget my fake smile, I am just really hungry... :p

Zouk's is just plain blur, he just enrolled for masters even though he has been an RA for 6 months. Welcome to the post grad club.. muehehehe.. :D

More stories. .. I paid no attention.. still hungry :D

Finally makan!!!. This is kampung fried chicken. It can also mean free range chicken raised without antibiotics and can also be fed organically.

Jantung pisang and paku pakis... in english... err Banana heart and nails... :D. (the brown one is part of a banana tree that is shaped like a heart and is red when not cooked, the green one is just leafy vegetable)

Tom Yum..

Forgotten to take picture of the Gulai Kawah (curry cooked kampung style). Thank you Dr Malina for this wonderful lunch.. Next.. Prof Wan's is treating us all lunch :D

Silver

This is what I got for spending a Saturday in the lab. Silver nitrate staining using an old kit that is not even sold anymore by the company that produced it. Luckly it still works, although it was stained too much because I forgotten to prepared the stopping solution to stop it from staining too much. This has my crude protein, which literally mean a broken form of my T. gondii (by freezing, thawing, sonicating, and centrifuging), my surface antigen 1 protein and the protein marker. Hmm my prof would love to have this picture, although the main problem would be that funny line across the gel. It seem I am the only one whose gel has these streak mark across it. Hmm well, back to the drawing board..

*slowly but surely getting there...to the finish line..

Find me in the lab

Aaaaa.. I wanna go home..

I am in the lab on Saturday. No.. I am not that diligent, but its just that I have been missing a few workdays. So I have to come on Saturday to do my research. No matter right, plenty of people have to work on weekends and public holiday. I mean, you just have to do it in order to get it done, or make sometime to slack off or have fun later. 4th semester.. supposedly the last semester. I really do want it to be my last semester, but judging on how I spend my time, its going to be a tough call.. Very tough indeed... However I had fun on weekdays night, so its not so bad.. On silver staining, on comasine blue staining, on SDS gel.. lets make this a good weekend..

A Day In The Lab

Yup just a regular day in the lab. It started off with breakfast in our lab technologist room.

Followed by a dissection of a snake.

A snake my friend found dead on the side of the road.

They are removing all the internal organs in preparation to preserve it.

They will opened it with wooden stick so the preserving solution will cover the snake inside and out.

Ah yes while the snake is submerged in the preserving solution, its time for clean up of the fume hood. Just a normal day in the lab.

Things to do in the lab

The ill fated mice that was chosen for my weekly sacrifice. They must die, so I can live and the rest of human kind can benefit from this research.

We are like a family here, always helping out and working together for work or play. My lab technologist Kak Hanim and my lab mate Zouk is practicing to use the DSLR that our lab bought. Its better for us all to understand how to use it so that if the time comes for us to take really good photographs of our research, we would know how.

Kak Yaya, another lab mate who works at the lab next door, hiding behind a box of Eppendoff pipettes. She is a regular visitor in our lab to borrow stuff or just to hang out.

Another successful serum collection. This is only the second time I gotten a serum with out any blood cells lysed.

Sometimes boredom in the lab slowly kills you, and there is nothing like a really good emotion filled yawn complete with the ugly face. No need to cover, no need to be polite. Its the best yawn ever :p

I did not noticed that I dressed up in a camouflage to blend in with my room. I am currently more particular with clothes now. I find items that fits instead of being baggy and tent like. I use to take like 30 seconds to wear something when I got to class or going out. Now it takes at least half an hour, which sometime includes a change of clothes if it does not feel or looked good. Gosh now I am even particular about the socks and underwear I have on. Everything must be perfect. I am this close of ironing all the jeans and collared T shirt that I am planning to wear. All of you may wonder why the sudden change. I guess I got tired of being the selekeh (unkept) one in the family. My youngest sister and I are the ones who are unkept among our siblings. I just don't like to dress up, but after constant nagging and how my sister laughed when I said my budget to buy raya clothes was RM 100. Well they just created a monster and this monster is planning to buy more shoes to add to his wardrobe collection.