CELLebraTEZ

Ever sit around the a group of friends and talk about trivial or not so trivial lab issues? Then the awkward moment comes when no one understand your pain? The only way to share your pain is with fellow Lab Techs going through the same thing!!? I would like to open up the web for Lab Techs out there to share their woes. I’ll start! “My high-fat diet mice get too fat and lazy to have sex and make babies for my future experiments” #LabTechProblems “I did a pilot experiment and it worked beautifully. Then I tried replicating it… not once, not twice but multiple times and I can’t get my data to reproduce!! FML” #LabTechProblems So I have got us started! Please share and let’s find some comic relief   in our oh so very stressful work situations! ~Cell-ebraTez

Ever take a science class and have to write in a lab notebook? Ever been annoyed at the fact that you have to write everything down? Every step, any deviations, observations, on top of that you have to write an analysis! How boring!! Well let’s think of it as scrapbooking. You go on vacation or do something memorable with friends, family or significant others you want to document it. Just the same way, scientists want to document their every step so that as you scrapbook and can look back at those pictures and words and remember the wonderful memories; scientists want to look back and be able to reproduce the same memories which we like to think of it as data! So how does the process work? Format for Lab Notebook and how this translates to scrapbooking: Title : what are your memeories about? Ex. Wedding, Hawaii, Backpacking through Europe, Sweet 16 etc… Abstract : little snip-bit about what you experienced. Introduction: Where did you go, who was involved, w...

So apparently I am the worst blogger ever! I keep promising to be better at blogging but just not keeping up with it. And at this point I don’t want to make another promise just in case I fall off again! But this time, things will definitely be different. I met a new friend who has found her dream job due to blogging for 3 yrs! And while blogging is not a career path for me, I think it can help me actualize my future for me and help me get more connected to the world wide web!! (other than facebook ofcourse!)  The past 7 months   at WashU have been a rollarcoaster. There are days when the science works beautifully and there are many more days when the science doesn’t work and you just want to crawl back in bed and never come out! And while I have loved every single minute of it, I have realized all the other passions I have in life and have been trying to figure out how to merge everything together. For those of you who know me well, know that I have a passion for...

Thinking about the future is very scary. But for some reason we all have to have a plan. I was the kind of person that had every single detail of my life planned out. Unfortunately, not I only have my wedding planned! I have a semi idea of the things I would like to accomplish but not planning every detail out. I am letting life plan it self for me but still taking advantage of all the opportunities I can.  One of the things I plan on doing is being a scientist (hence the blog on science) but specifically I want to explore regenerative medicine.  Regenerative medicine's main aim is to restore the function of diseased or damaged tissues or organs using a variety of approaches. From cell-based therapies through tissue engineering to developing new medical devices. Came across this great article where regenerative medicine along with biomedical engineering have been able to create a vagina and implanted it into women who were born without or underdeveloped vagina. Its thes...

Who says chocolate is bad for you? I just came across a great article that shows evidence that some chocolate can be good for you! Not only good, it can help maintain your weight and help prevent type 2 diabetes!  This magical ingredient is "Oligomeric procyanidins" found in dark chocolate. In the study published in The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, the scientists wrote, "Oligomeric procyanidins appear to possess the greatest anti-obesity and anti-diabetic bioactivities of the flavanols in cocoa, particularly at the low doses employed for the present study." So, do yourself a favor, and treat yourself to some Dark Chocolate today!  Read more:  http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2014/04/02/An-ingredient-in-chocolate-may-help-people-fight-obesity-and-type-2-diabetes/9101396477578/#ixzz2xpOF3k6D ~Cell-ebraTez

Finally, after 4 months of living in St. Louis, I finally toured some of the popular spots in St. Louis. One of my best friends from Agnes Scott College came to visit me! Cecilia Alcala and I met our freshman year but became really close during our Jr. and Sr. Years at Agnes. Throughout the past couple of years, thanks to texting and facebook, we have been able to keep in touch and our friendship has grown! During my months of unemployment, Cecilia's friendship and support was extremely helpful and her positive attitude was always inspiring!  Cecilia's first visit to St. Louis was a great reason for me to go out and explore the city I live in! Thank goodness for the Great weather!  We started our day getting breakfast at a Stl gem, Strange Donuts. Two doors down was a place called, Pie, Oh My! While the plan was just to get a donut, we ended up going to Pie, oh my and got mini pies as well!! Oh boy were we ready to conquer our sugar filled breakfast!!  After...

At some point in my last entry I talked about my frustration with technology. It seems as though the technological malfunctioning has passed and I can go back to doing experiments and trusting my data. I have officially been working and collecting data for the past 4 months. I have tons of numbers that we call “data.” But they are just numbers! We put the animal in a tube, run it through a machine and the machine spits out numbers. Sometimes, I collect blood samples measure it with a Glucometer and I get numbers. I collect RNA run it through qPCR and I get numbers. Numbers, numbers, numbers!! Everywhere there are numbers! At some point, you must ask yourself… what do these numbers mean? The process of sorting data is very tedious. It takes time, patience and perfection! Once you have these numbers sorted in an “organized” fashion, the next process is to UNDERSTAND what these numbers mean. In the understanding part of the data, numbers get “thrown out.” These numbers that magically...