Michael King - Week 6 - Loh Lab UCSF

Last week was rather uneventful, more of the same with pretty much everything going as expected. I did learn one new technique, though, DNA extraction. It is a relatively simple protocol involving a few steps to lyse cells, eliminate RNA, precipitate out proteins, and finally precipitate out DNA. I processed around 30 or so patient samples. I guess the most interesting thing about DNA extraction would be the fact that each sample comes from an actual leukemia patient somewhere across the United States. My lab receives samples a few times a week, and someone processes the sample to freeze down some cells and to set some aside for DNA extraction. Most patient samples are vials of blood, and to process each sample, the blood must be filtered so that only the cells of interest, the white blood cells, are leftover. I processed one sample last week, too.

Once the DNA is extracted, the samples must also be analyzed to determine DNA concentration. This process involves the use of a nanodrop machine. Nanodropping each sample proved to be a bit tedious, as you have to carefully place a drop of one microliter from each sample onto the reader, which analyzes samples one at a time.

Finally got a few pictures of the lab equipment, I promise to have more by the time I finish.

This is a picture of the Vicell machine, which measures cell viability. It is a very useful tool for cell culturing, and I use it on almost a daily basis. The Vicell machine is relatively simple to use, and only involves placing a small sample from each cell culture into tubes which are then fed into the machine. It is a helpful alternative to counting cells under the microscope, and also measures cell density.

This machine is the gel reading machine in my lab. I believe it is actually a prototype from BioRad, and is currently being loaned to my lab for beta testing. It is also very easy to use and can take pictures of gels at different exposures. We use it to read various kinds of gels, too, including western blots and PCR analyses.

The engraftments of patient samples have sufficiently taken in some of the mice, and soon we need to start treatment. This also means we will have to go bleed the mice much more often.

Days have been dragging a bit long recently, and sometimes I don't get out of the lab until after six in the afternoon.