Life Science Tools of the Trade

why does the boss give you more to do?  I don’t know about you but when things aren’t working for me, the last thing I want to do is add more confusion to the mix. 

Simplify.  Simplify.  That’s my motto.  Take a step back and concentrate on one thing.  Once you troubleshoot that… tackle the next problem.  Seems like a reasonable approach to me. 

Unfortunately, that’s not how things have been going.  Instead of one project that’s been giving me headaches, I now have 3 to troubleshoot.

What’s the goal for this week?  Tackle one thing at a time and TRY to get something accomplished.  

New to microRNAs or siRNAs?  Check out the Ambion website for all you need to know.  The site covers the gamut.  From the very basics of how and what microRNAs are to setting up and performing animal model experiments. 

Ambion is an RNA company and they’re in the business to sell their products but they have also organized a wealth of info on their site. 

If you need a crash course on RNAs, check it out.

 www.ambion.com

One day last week I dodged a bullet. However, I returned to my desk and found a flier with two tubes taped to it and the catchy phrase “Check-out our new tubes!” scrawled across the page. I missed the rep but not the chance to “check-out his new tubes”.  Okay, if you want me to try your new tubes give me a bag full. I guess he thought he was being generous since he gave me two (sample AND a balance!!).

“Our new tubes”………..I know this company isn’t making diddley-squat. LIke everyone else they buy then resell. So, what was so special about those new  “precision manufactured” tubes? Nothing.

I’m not mentioning names because I don’t want a google search dragging him back to the lab any sooner than next quarters sales push to meet his sales goal/quota.

Congratulations to our Bio-Rad rep and her family.  Their son was born just in time for Mother’s Day!  Glad both mom and baby are doing well. 

I can only guess that some genius (with no lab experience and a MBA-a brutal combination) came up with this plan. Let’s make the eppendorf tubes 10% thinner. Nobody will know the difference and we’ll save 10% on raw materials!

www.bioexpress.com   catalog # C-3217-1 1.5 ml boil-proof micro-tube.

Verdict: Avoid these tubes.

Okay, so you can boil your samples, just don’t spin them.

I won’t embarrass the sales rep (who is quite reasonable), but everytime a tube shatters or the top flies off I shout “Thanks _ _ _!” as the microfuge grinds up the plastic shards while I rush to turn it off.

“What are people worried about? What is the problem?” asked Lott, a former majority leader. “Are you doing something you’re not supposed to?”*

*In response to a reported program to create a massive database of U.S. phone calls. 

Nothing to do with science. Sorry if I offended any Republican morons that support this brilliant idea. Hey kids, it is 1984, just 22 years late.

GAATTC = Eco RI

I don’t miss Gavrilov.

Does anyone know of a FREE program that scans a DNA sequence for silent mutation restriction enzyme sites? 

I’m doing mutagenesis and figured if I could engineer restriction sites, I’d make screening my clones MUCH easier.  Unfortunately, I haven’t had much look finding software.  At one time, there was a chart in the back of the NEB catalog showing the mutations but they’ve since taken it out. 

Searching the net for a free program hasn’t proven very useful. 

WatCut looked promising but turned out to have sequence restrictions.  No more than 100 nucleotides could be input.  My impression is that it focuses more on oligos than on a whole cDNA sequence.  (My sequence is 1.2kb)

EMBOSS, came up but, I’m still trying to figure out… is EMBOSS now SILENT and whose program is it? 

I keep thinking there has to be a program on the NCBI site but haven’t found one.

What I thought was going to be a simple and EASY approach is turning out to be more troube than it’s worth!

Yesterday we had an enjoyable lunch with Susan the “perfect” sales rep to celebrate her promotion. Today we met the insulting idiot sales reps.  I will assume they were just inexperienced and not stupid and offer them the following guidance.

Primer for Sales Reps:

Lesson 1: Don’t barge in and tell me what you’re going to do. Ask me if I am busy before you start hawking, for example, your gloves and tubes (FYI:gloves and tube sales reps are the absolute bottom of the barrel). I may listen now but most likely I’m busy and you need to come back at MY convenience.

Lesson 2: Do not ever say “It looks like you’re busy (FYI:I am busy!) so I’ll only show you one product!”

Lesson 3: Do not insult me and tell me your special tissue culture petri dish will, for example,  ”improve cell viability, recovery and eliminate condensation problems (Condensation problems? What the hell are you talking about?)”.  I’ve been doing this for over a decade and know if I have a problem. You don’t.

Lesson 4:  Don’t make an ass of yourself by telling me what a great price you have and then not know what I’ll pay for your product.

Lesson 5: Don’t try and buy my name for your mailing list with a chance to win an iPOD shuffle. (Odds of :winning iPOD (1:100,000,000)  :added to mailing list (1:1)

Lesson 6: Memorize the above 5 steps.

Okay, so usually I’m complaining about some incompetent sales rep that doesn’t know their product, lost a quote or can’t remember that we placed an order for $15,000 with them a month ago. But……every once in awhile (to be honest, this has never happened before) you get to know a sales rep so well and feel that she has treated you so fairly that you offer to take them to lunch when they receive a promotion and move on/up.

Today was that rare day.

Good luck Susan! Thanks for the excellent service and honesty.

PS - There is no conflict of interest. I doubt we’ll ever buy a Real-time PCR machine for the lab.

PSS - I hope the table behind us wasn’t too offended by the conversation.

.