Cell culture contamination continued!

After my cell cultures got contaminated, other people in the lab took notice and began to suspect their own cultures. Last Thursday we cleaned out our cell culture incubator by wiping it with all the decontamination solutions we have in lab, autoclaving all of the shelves and the water tray in the incubator and then placed these under UV light overnight. Hopefully the extreme measures we took will remove these little creatures that's been haunting my mental well-being now.

Cell culture contamination.

Over the weekend my transfections were contaminated (likely bacteria) -- there was a white dusty coat/film growing above the cells.  I suspected that the OptiMEM (reagent use for transfection) is the culprit.  But then it happened again with new OptiMEM!  At the same time, Dr. Y used the same DNA preparation that I made recently for his transfection and his transfections were contaminated too.  How likely does a new preparation of midi-prep get contaminated?  Anyway, the problem was solved by filtering the DNA through a 0.2 uM filter.

After these cell culture contamination episodes, my paranoia kicked in and I began to suspect that all my cell cultures have some level of bacteria growing in them.   After careful examination the different cell lines I have been maintaining, I found these microscopic specks floating in Brownian motion around the cells.  I consulted with Dr. Y and he said that a few years back he saw the same thing so he took his contaminated cell culture samples to the pathology lab.  It turned out that they were Aspergillus!  According to Dr. Y, treatment with gentamicin will take care of this, but after reading these online blogs about Aspergillus contaminations, sounds like it is more serious than what he made out to be.  I am now geared up to do some serious decontamination of our cell culture room now.  More updates later.

Getting Real!

Initially when I started this blog, my intention was to produce insightful and polish messages/posts on here.  I also wanted to keep as much of my personal life from this blog fearing that someday when I am looking for a "real" job -- meaning not another postdoc position -- I won't suffer consequences of sharing too much on this blog.  But, I realized that the whole point of blogging is to connect with other bloggers who share the same interests and without putting myself out there, the purpose of blogging is compromised.  As far as putting the most "polished" work on this blog, well at this point, I have no audience -- so it doesn't make sense contemplating over the wording of each sentence for hours like I normally do with my other work?  Finally, while I'd like to wait until these surges of busy events in my life subsided before I update my blog, I find that when I do have time, these raw emotions that I felt at the time also has escaped me and I can't find the right words to describe them anymore.  Beside isn't the point of blogging to capture in time the rawness of emotions?  It certainly will give each post a genuine feeling of being "real."  So in an attempt to be as "real" and personal as I can, I would like to re-introduce myself.

My name is Uyen and I am currently a postdoc at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  I graduated with a PhD from the Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology Program in May of 2011.  I took about two months off right after my graduation to travel for a bit and spend some time with my family before taking a position as a postdoctoral associate in the lab next door to my PhD lab, in the laboratory of Dr. Y.  Over the course of eight months since I joined, the lab has changed quite a bit.  We had eight people in the lab when I joined to now only four individuals:  Dr. Y, myself and two graduate students (J. and T.).  My first eight months as a postdoc has been quite productive.  I had applied for my first postdoctoral fellowship from the PhRMa Foundation and to my surprised received it!  Over Thanksgiving break, with permission, we expanded and renovated our lab break room and painted it blue (more about our blue break room with pictures to come).  Finally, I have been involved with a small group of postdocs here at UW-Madison to bring a postdoctoral association to our Medical School.  To my surprise, with over 800 postdocs UW-Madison does not have an organized Postdoctoral Association or Office.  Our effort has made some small progress but I am extremely excited because I think this is a worthwhile cause.

Well, I have exhausted my thoughts for today.  Another post to come as I am rushing to finish this Bachelorrette Party planning for my best friend.  I'm leaving on Friday to meet up with a bunch of girls in Dallas for a combined bachelorette party for H. (my best friend) and H. (a friend).