A day in the life (2)

This post is part of a one week series detailing the life of a post-doc on her way to academia (next summer).

Chatted with PI about grant proposal due Oct 1. We are trying to tighten out experimental design to give clear, quantitive outcomes. This is a bit difficult because we are using an animal model, which is always variable, and histology to characterize, which can be very subjective. Talked about analyzing fluroescent pixel counts and histograms of stained tissue sections to get quantitative data.

Checked my cells. Still alive and adhering to glass. Preparing to add activating agent that will turn them into nerve cells. Divide agent into 50 tiny vials, all with sterile technique, very tedious. Throw a few bottles in the autoclave before moving on to next project.

Isolate film for testing polymer adhesion. Glue onto glass coverslips with Silicone adhesive. Leave to dry.

Do a couple lit searches for paper that I'm working on while eating lunch.

Feed cells adding activating agent. Autoclave films. Learn more about Adobe photocopy for upcoming study counting nerve cell extensions. Work on paper.

Ah! The life of an experimentalist.