Thank you Science God!

Science is trying most of the time and I remember how down trottened I was when my first experiment failed for my Masters degree project. (Oh how I laugh now, it is to be the first of many!) For the past month and a half (a nano second in science world), I've been trying to solve the problem of why a certain assay was not working. I had done this assay a year ago with perfection and beautiful results, so what gives? As in science, there are always more than one factor involved. Carrying out experiments in an efficient way to get to your answer is the golden grail and most important lesson to be learnt. Today, I tried out a new way of carrying out my experiment and BOOM!

It works!


I can't fully describe what sheer high this is but I'll try. It is a combination of assurance that you are not entirely an idiot, that you're technically able and boy oh boy the possibilities, watch out science world, here I come with my ear to ear grin! It is a different high than my Etsy sales high, it is like having flowers bloom around you after being defeated and numb for such a long time. Of course, these feelings don't last long but while I'm here, I'm going to enjoy my science high.

Here is my final result:


No, you are not looking at linear christmas lights in the dark. What you're looking at with your eyebrows raised, are proteins.
Yes! Proteins, the stuff of life! (you're probably thinking about protein shakes and oiled up orange muscular men eh?)

The point of the assay is to see how much, if any, protein of interest we can induce by treating cells with a certain condition. There are of course lots of proteins in our cells, so how do we know that band is what we're looking at? You see the multiple bands in one straight column on the left hand side? Well, that's a "protein ladder", full of proteins with known sizes bought from a science company. The further down the page the band, the smaller the protein. (It is because these proteins run on gels and the smaller you are, the faster you can run or migrate through the gel.) Anyways, besides distinguishing them via size, we tag them with these fluorescent antibodies that only specifically recognizes our protein. (Antibodies also bought from science companies, for a fair bit of money!!) and when you shoot laser through the sheet, it excites the antibodies and that is why you can see bands of green fluorescent glows.

I just realised how exceptionally boring this could be, especially if I didn't explain it right!