Certified

Finally, I am able to act independently within the lab. This week I became certified with the University of Arizona and I was able to start running Western Blots. I have spent the week working on the Western Blot competition. The picture attached to this post is showing the completed Western Blot gels in their molds.

On Monday, I finally received the final part of my online safety courses to become certified with the University of Arizona. There are three parts to the safety training. The first part is a short harassment course defining harassment and detailing the appropriate conduct. The second part was a biological safety course. This course taught me about the proper safety procedures for handling agents capable of causing disease. Biological safety is very important within the lab because the research that we are doing often involves contagious diseases. The final part of the safety training was for chemical safety. Since we have hundreds of chemicals in the lab, it is important to follow the safety procedures in order to prevent a fire, violent reaction, or personal injury. These three courses were very straight forward and simple but they are necessary in order to be certified with the University.

Now that I am certified, I am allowed to independently handle tissue samples. This allows me to take part in the Western Blot competition. The Western Blot and IHC tests that I have done in the past were guided by the graduate students in the lab. Now, I am able to do these tests on my own. This benefits both myself and the graduate students because I will be able to become proficient at these tests, and they will not have to constantly watch over my shoulder.

Western Blot tests are a two-part process. First, the gels must be made, then the actual test can be done. On Tuesday I began making the gels. Western Blot gels are made using a combination of several different chemicals poured into a mold that will produce four gels. The gel in then left in a mold for 30 minutes to an hour to set up. Once the gel is set, a new gel mixture must be mixed. This second mixture is poured on top of the original gel in order to allow the proteins to stack inside of the gel properly. When the secondary layer is dried, the gels can be removed from the mold and saved in a solution for the testing process. Although this is a seemingly complicated process, I quickly picked up on it after completing my first gels. On my first gels, I mixed all of the chemicals correctly and completed every step correctly up until the last step. After pouring the final layer of gel, a comb-like piece of plastic must be inserted so that channels are created when the comb is removed. When I originally inserted these combs, I did not push them in all the way. After about 15 minutes, I realized and finished pushing them in. Unfortunately, the gels had already dried and two of the combs popped back out. This caused me to lose two of my four gels.

On Thursday, I made more gels to make up for the ones that I had to throw away on Tuesday. My second time making gels went both more smoothly and more quickly. I am now ready to start the Western Blot tests. I decided not to begin the tests on Thursday because I cannot leave it over the weekend.

The picture attached to this post is the finished Western Blot gels. The plastic case is the mold and the white plastic piece on top in the comb. This gel will set and be used to conduct a Western Blot test.

So far, I have enjoyed the more independent lab work. Working without constant guidance has helped me learn the processes for myself. It has also been beneficial to have graduate students with me in the lab because I often need guidance. I now feel proficient in making Western Blot gels and I look forward to figuring out how to complete a Western Blot test.