r/labrats 35m ago

How to integrate into a lab

Upvotes

Hi everyone, I’ve been a new student in a lab for a couple months and was wondering how I can best integrate with everyone. There are a couple post-docs, technicians, and a very small number of students including me. I have met everyone by now but I was wondering how I could work on getting to know everyone better in the lab and/or become friends with some of the others?

I’m having a really hard time becoming friends with them too because they all seem so close and while 1:1s go well, groups don’t work at all when i’m there. They often also have side conversations and just don’t include me. Sometimes i’ve noticed them feeling bad and including me in group outings, but I just feel like my presence makes things awkward

Everyone else is also more knowledgeable than me, even the other students who have been here longer so I feel so useless too while juggling my courses.


r/labrats 36m ago

Favorite Dissection Forceps?

Upvotes

Hey lab rats 🐀! What is everyone’s favorite forceps for dissection? Currently I do Drosophila dissections and use the usual Dumont Size 5 in stainless steel but I’m looking to upgrade if something has better point retention.

Does anybody have any experience with cobalt or titanium forceps? I was looking at the Excelta Ultrafine point in cobalt or titanium.


r/labrats 1h ago

Plant ITS amplification

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Upvotes

Hi everyone,
I’m working on a phylogenetic/population genetics project involving Crataegus and Philadelphus.
I’m using the plant-specific ITS primers from this paper:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1755-0998.12438
Primers:
ITS-p5
ITS-p4
The PCR conditions are identical for both genera. Tm=55C (as shown in study)
Results:
Crataegus: most samples amplify, but several produce multiple bands (one strong expected-size band plus one or more additional bands).
Philadelphus(between ladders): almost no amplification, despite good DNA quality and successful amplification of chloroplast markers from the same DNA.
I’ve attached the gel (2% agarose gel in 1x TBE buffer : 80v for 1:30).
I’m trying to determine whether the problems are due to:
primer-template mismatches,
nonspecific amplification,
fungal/endophytic DNA,
intra-individual ITS variation (especially in Crataegus),
PCR conditions,
or something else.
Some additional information:
DNA was extracted using a modified CTAB protocol.
Other markers (e.g., chloroplast loci) amplify from the same DNA.
Crataegus species may include hybrids.
Philadelphus samples are from multiple individuals/populations.
My questions are:
Has anyone used ITS-p5/ITS-p4 successfully with Philadelphus?
Is multiple-band amplification common in Crataegus due to paralogous ITS copies or hybridization?
Would you recommend increasing annealing temperature, redesigning primers, or switching to another ITS primer pair?
If you’ve worked with Rosaceae or Hydrangeaceae, what ITS primers have given you the best results?
Any suggestions or similar experiences would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!


r/labrats 1h ago

How do y'all dispose of MiSeq reagents??

Upvotes

Hi everyone! We usually store our MiSeq cartridges in a drum, which is collected and disposed of in a way that is compliant with local EHS rules, because they're considered formamide contaminated waste. We've also been storing the liquid waste after a run/wash in a HDPE container and were wondering the correct way to dispose of this waste, since it's technically also contaminated with formamide. Thank you!!


r/labrats 1h ago

How to cope with lack of data on summer project

Upvotes

Title. I am a rising junior in college that was lucky enough to secure a research opportunity at a prestigious national lab. However, even though I have a good relationship with my mentor/coworkers and I have good technique, one very important experiment I did ended up giving surprising null data, thus almost invalidating my entire summer project. Worse, I don’t have time to repeat this experiment as it involves multiple week-long incubations.

I was promised authorship on a paper, but now I’m worried that is jeopardized. My mentor was supportive and told me that it is normal for science to fail especially with the new setup and bacterial strain we were working with (it’s known to have strange behavior), but I cannot help but be bummed out. She specifically mentioned how none of it is my fault, but I’m worried that it really could be my mistake and I just never noticed.

Was really looking forward to have my name on a publication :(. I haven’t talked to my mentor exclusively about authorship status. I still was productive and conducted multiple other analyses, it’s just this most important one gave no readings. Was also looking forward to a rec letter and a potential return offer but now I’m worried none of that will come because of this failure.

Gonna go and actively troubleshoot now! Whats a good way to cope with results like these?


r/labrats 2h ago

Stage M2 help

0 Upvotes

Guys. Vous faites quoi quand vos maîtres de stage vous suppriment plein de trucs de votre stage (expériences, résultats..), que vous avez 40 pages à rédiger mais que vous pouvez résumer votre stage par "coloriage et 5 PCA" ?

C'est-à-dire que je fais un stage en biologie (segmentation, comparaison morphologique via nuages de points, recherche de signaux phylogénétiques et écologiques, biomécha etc), le sujet étant la chaîne ossiculaire de certains rongeurs.

On va poser les bases: j'ai fait un bac L et je ne suis pas biologiste + mes soucis de santé ont un peu f*ckedup le stage et j'ai perdu beaucoup de temps en labo à cause de ça.

On me donne des scans, on me dit "faut segmenter". J'ai segmenté. Les osselets, c'est minuscules et c'était majoritairement tout cassé et dégueu, la qualité des scans étaient plutôt foireux et le PC ramait tellement que j'attendais 10 à 20 secondes entre chaque petit trait/pixel de segmentation + j'ai souvent eu du mal à charger les scans du premier coup et il y a un jour où ça m'a pris une heure pour ouvrir un scan, il m'a fermé 8 fois le logiciel (pour ceux qui ne savent pas, la segmentation consiste à prendre image par image le scan d'un individu et colorier les zones ciblées, ici, les osselets et j'ai fait ça - au - PIXEL - par moment).

Je préviens plusieurs fois que les scans sont caca et que je ne sais pas comment on va sortir des datas viables mais on me dit "fait au mieux"... ok.. bon... bah.. j'ai fait tellement au mieux que tout le monde était émerveillé devant ma segmentation, donc je me dis ok, j'ai bien fait mon truc.

Bref, ensuite je pose mes landmarks (des points qu'on pose sur des parties précises et choisit de l'os). Là arrive un premier problème : j'ai des osselets gauche et des osselets droits mais il me les faut tous tu même côté.

J'explique à un de mes maîtres de stage qui me dit qu'il me fait un programme pour les mirrorer. Je me dis "super". Je lui explique que j'ai posé mes points sur 6 individus de référence et majoritairement, ils ont les osselets gauches (je n'ai pris qu'un côté des osselets par individu, par manque crucial de temps). Il me fait un programme qui modifie les osselet gauches pour en faire des osselets droits......... j'avais 4 gauches et 2 droits..... et ça n'a pas fonctionné tout de suite... J'ai bidouillé son programme pendant DEUX semaines pour réussir à obtenir correctement mes trucs, je n'ai pas réussi et j'ai fini par tout refaire à la mains (la pose des points, le lissage de la segmentation etc parce que son programme a foutu la merde pas possible).

Comme vous voyez, pour ce qui concerne la partie programmation, ce n'est pas possible pour moi, j'ai eu beau prendre des cours particuliers, avoir appris mes cours etc, ça ne passe pas, ça ne rentre pas. On me dit "tkt pour ça c'est nous qui nous en chargeons ! " (vous le sentez venir ? ).

Je ne parlerai pas de la partie ALPACA avec toute la progra qui n'a pas fonctionné correctement (encore une fois hein) et que c'est une personne du labo qui ne sait pas correctement programmer non plus qui m'a pris par la main pour m'aider à obtenir des résultats.... Bref, encore plusieurs jours plus tard je finis par y arriver et je retouche les points pas correctement posés.

Vient la partie analyse PROCRUSTE : mon maître de stage me fait un programme qui ne fonctionne pas, lol. Après encore des jours à galérer, j'appelle à l'aide un ami, que dis-je, un messie ! Il travaille dans la progra et à l'habitude de faire ce genre de choses pour des ingé, des scientifiques etc. En 30 mn il me règle le soucis ce dieu. On passe cependant tout un w-e pour réparer toutes les erreurs que je n'avais pas vu dans les programmes précédents, qui ont donc complètement bousillés mes données et qui m'ont fait faire du travail pour rien.

On finit par sortir 6 PCA (sur tous les individus, 1 pca du malleus, 1 pca de l'incus, 1 pca du stapes, 1 pca de l'anneau tympanique, 1 pca de la chaîne de tous les osselets de tous les individus dans leur états d'origine [un état merdique donc] et 1 pca superblock où on sépare tous les osselets, on casse leur chaîne et on met les incus sur les incus, les malleus sur les malleus etc.)

C'est beau, c'est magnifique, je vais enfin pouvoir passer à la bioméchanique. Bon, je sais que je vais devoir demander à mon ami de regarder le code de mon maître de stage mais bon... mon ami est prêt, il est chaud à m'aider. Ce que je n'avais pas vu venir, c'est l'abandon de cette partie par mes professeurs. Parce que trop compliqué et pas le temps. Ah. Bon. Bah. C'est tout mdr.

Bref, je rédige un premier brouillon de mon rapport, avec la moitié de la discussion, la description des résultats etc, j'arrive à ~27 pages. Je me dis "dommage, avec la partie biomecha, j'aurai eu 40 pages intéressantes et là j'ai pas grand chose... ca me fait chier, je sais pas comment je vais reussir a avoir mes 40 pages..." en plus je galère un peu car, comme dit plus haut, je ne suis pas biologiste et on me demande un vocabulaire que je n'ai pas forcément réussi à acquérir.

Mes maîtres de stage corrigent et là, c'est le drame. On me supprime la PCA superblock dans les résultats et on hésite à me retirer la PCA chain et le diagramme des axes de variations des PC + on me supprime des figurés et des choses écrites plus hauts qui ont été validés des mois en avance..........

Je me retrouve avec une vingtaine de pages, seulement 4 figurés de résultats de sûr et 2 figurés en sursit et 20 pages à rédigés de discussion, sachant que la partie sur les limites rencontrées au cours du stage, elles me l'ont fait déplacer dans matériel et méthode, donc je n'ai plus rien ou alors je me répète. On m'a donné ce stage car il y a un manque de l'espèce ciblée dans la littérature donc la partie de la discussion où je compare avec la littérature euuh..... je vais comparer avec une espèce proche mais bon...... et voilà....

Donc là je me retrouve à ne pas savoir quoi faire, ne pas savoir où je vais vraiment, j'ai absolument rien à mettre dans mon rapport, il est vide.. Je ne vois pas comment je vais gratter 40 pages même en mettant de très belles images et de beaux tableaux, au bout d'un moment, c'est pas un livre pour enfant que j'écris (même si je pense me reconvertir en artiste après ça, quitte à finir de toute façon au chômage..) .

Est-ce que vous avez des conseils ? est-ce que vous vous êtes déjà retrouvés dans cette situation ? Quoi que je dois faire ? Je dois rendre dans 1 mois le rapport.... j'ai pas le temps de faire de nouvelles analyses etc et surtout, j'ai l'impression que mes maîtres de stages sont tellement débordés par leur travail à courir à gauche et à droite qu'ils ont abandonné en fait....


r/labrats 2h ago

White House admits it used keywords to kill billions worth of California research grants

210 Upvotes

Now do the other grants. California system cannot be the only institution(s) where the grants got terminated like this.

https://apnews.com/article/california-research-grants-terminated-keywords-lawsuit-a0ddb01413ecb68d9668490a20be6207


r/labrats 3h ago

Some sorting hilarity

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0 Upvotes

I know it's an ad, but gave me a chuckle


r/labrats 4h ago

Teeny weeny glassware🥺

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185 Upvotes

It’s so cute 🥺


r/labrats 4h ago

Someone forget to check what temperature their plastic melts at

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203 Upvotes

just pulled this out of the autoclave to make room for my stuff. the top melted just a little bit lmao


r/labrats 4h ago

How to better guide and mentor an undergrad

18 Upvotes

I am a PhD student in a wet lab, and we have several undergrads, all with varying levels of ability and independence. One is very involved and interested, but extremely slow with experimental stuff. A single reaction start to finish can take a week. I want to help them succeed, but something that takes me 3-4 hours taking them 20 hours is not a recipe for success. My method for mentoring has always been first time hands on, guided assistance/demo, second time hands on but the student does it, and after that they work alone. This student needs their hand held to an extreme amount, and even if I step away to force them to work more alone they will just piddle around, then ask me for help.

I do believe they are capable, and they could really succeed, but I think that it may be my mentorship style or that this student isn't confident. Any tips on how to guide them to more success? And force them to speed up a little? My mentor tossed me in the deep end a little, and often gave "higher stakes" stuff to do that meant messing up actually mattered, but I'm not sure how successful that would be to help.


r/labrats 4h ago

Did I ruin my Gateway cloning? Propagated destination vector on single antibiotic instead of dual selection.

1 Upvotes

I just finished a multi-step Gateway cloning workflow (BP then LR clonase) to move my gene of interest into an expression vector. However, I realized a major oversight: when I propagated and prepped my original Gateway destination plasmid from the stock, I only grew it on a single antibiotic (Ampicillin/Kanamycin) rather than using dual selection with Chloramphenicol to keep pressure on the Gateway cassette.

I know that propagating without Chloramphenicol risks spontaneous deletions or loss of the ccdB killer cassette, which usually means the plate gets flooded with empty background.

My question is:

  1. Could the BP and LR cloning reaction have worked despite this mistake? Has anyone accidentally done this before and still successfully pulled out their correct clones, or am I completely screening a plate full of empty/mutated backbones?

  2. I have miniprepped the final genes after LR reaction and sanger sequenced but I am still confused about what to look for in these gene sequences to tell if they are actually in there and in good shape or not?

Thanks in advance!


r/labrats 4h ago

Any Jimothy fans in the house?

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132 Upvotes

r/labrats 5h ago

N2A cells HELP

1 Upvotes

Does anyone know why N2A cells clump up like this? With a syncitium?


r/labrats 5h ago

How do I understand research as a freshman undergrad?

1 Upvotes

I’m trying to read research papers from various professors in my field at my university to hopefully reach out to them but like I’m really getting lost in trying to understand what the research paper is all about. Im reading applied physics and neuro research papers and it just seems way too complex.


r/labrats 5h ago

Starting a Lab with University Equipment Funds

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0 Upvotes

I’m starting an assistant professor position fresh out of a PhD and need to start up my lab. What are some must have equipments that I should list to my department to fund to get my lab started?

Field: organismal biologist with an emphasis in fish and attempting to pivot to shrimp/crawfish. Focus on immunology and nutrition but want to expand to disease ecology and environmental physiology.


r/labrats 5h ago

Bunsen Burners

22 Upvotes

Was recently talking with my kid, who is still in school, and the topic of Bunsen Burners came up. I realized I hadn’t used one since I was in school. Curious how many of you still use these in your day to day science?


r/labrats 5h ago

Footage from the time I kept recording Collotheca at home. They are microscopic animals, a genus of rotifers, who function as a microscopic venus flytrap, attracting microbes using its own stomach content as bait, then eating them when they enter its mouth.

83 Upvotes

r/labrats 5h ago

Help!

2 Upvotes

I got a Thermofisher Aspire “Innovate to Elevate” Insulated White Tumbler back in 2024 through the Aspire member rewards program. I gave it as a gift to my Dad back then and it has been his favorite bottle since. He uses it every single day and even traveled around the world with it. A few days ago, it broke and he has been really heartbroken about it since. Does anyone at all possibly have one they would not mind parting with or know where I can possibly get a new one for him? Thank you so much!

bottle picture from their Instagram site


r/labrats 6h ago

Cryostat Help!!

1 Upvotes

Hi guys, I am having lots of trouble on the cryostat and my slides are turning out very inconsistent/ have holes in the middle/ ice crystals and I am not sure what to do anymore. I slice usually TA muscle and can't find anything else to optimize. Anyone else have any advice about how I can make slides more consistent?


r/labrats 6h ago

Any advice for thesis structure or writing process

0 Upvotes

Hi, y’all!

I’m wrapping up the first year of my Biology Masters. I’m hoping to be graduated by this time next year! However, I feel like I’m making negative progress on putting together my thesis. I’ve still got some lab work to do but I’ve made relatively good progress. My problem is a severe lack of motivation when it comes to writing along with always feeling like there’s more to add. I feel like every time I get in the groove, I find more information that could/should be included and then fall down a rabbit hole about what I may need to add/take away/reconsider/etc. I guess I’m looking for advice on how to best make effective progress.

I have similar issues when trying to write the review articles I want to get finished by the end of this year. I swear I’ve got like six bibliographies with way too much info 😅.

How long should I be shooting for when it comes to writing a thesis? What are some of the best outlining tips? How do you keep focused and not fall into the trap of new papers 😂

Really I’d appreciate any advice that you guys found to be helpful while working through your programs! I love this sub so much, the supportive atmosphere is everything, and I appreciate any advice anyone has. Thank you!!


r/labrats 6h ago

How to deal with smear campaign in the lab

14 Upvotes

I’m not sure if this is the right place to do this but I need some advice. I had a falling out with 2 friends during my third year. It wasn’t really a falling out I left to focus on my severe mental health issue at the time but they hated that even though I told them a million times that I needed space. During my masters year they went around the entire lab including professors and supervisors, postgrads, everyone, and would tell them my private matters and how evil and horrible person I am, calling me names like rat and bitch. People would glare at me when I walked down the hallways while I was still recovering.

I’m not sure what to do about this. Should I report it? Where would I even report this? The main perpetrator is doing her PhD there now so it’s still a relevant case.
I have 2 people that can vouch for me and say it was in fact happening (as they were the ones to tell me)


r/labrats 8h ago

Recommendations for low voltage silicone heating pad for rodent electrophysiology?

2 Upvotes

I'm a postdoctoral fellow working in a Neuro lab studying nerve activity in rodents. This is a relatively new project and we have discovered that the heating pads we had been using (microwavable gel pads) do not last long enough for our procedures and it's too difficult to switch pads in the middle of recording. We believe that the inability to monitor and maintain body temperature is significantly affecting our results. To combat this, we purchased a simple electronic homeothermic heating pad. However, we've found that it's too high of a voltage and electrically noisy. You can literally see it power cycling in the nerve recording. We talked to the manufacturer for other options and they said that the only one that would work is an upgraded model that costs $1500, significantly more expensive than the model we currently have. Do any electrophysiologists have any recommendations for heating pads that can be used during in vivo electrophysiology?

I have also thought about constructing my own and have found guide on how to do it, however the supplies are difficult to find from our approved vendors and we're not allowed to purchase from Amazon. So, I will also take any recommendations for building our own if you can point us to a scientific retailer that would have the supplies.


r/labrats 8h ago

96 Well Plate Randomizer Template File

4 Upvotes

A little bit ago, I was feeling very lazy and did not want to design my 96-well plate by hand, since I wanted 3 replicates in each plate but randomly assorted within the plate (with three replicates of each plate where I had multiple plates at different temps, you get the picture....)

Anyways, after passing that task onto my undergrad, I felt that there had to be an easyish way to make an Excel sheet to do this for us, since I also couldn't find a good online resource that could do this for me (shouldn't there be a website? maybe i just didn't look hard enough).

So I made one! Hope this helps someone out there :)


r/labrats 9h ago

How to represent antibiotic resistance when writing genotype

1 Upvotes

Possibly a silly question but I can’t find anything online which answers it. When writing out a genotype of something resistant to an antibiotic, can I write ::kanamycin instead of kanamycin^R? For example, Δlon::kan instead of Δlon kan^R