As most of us would know by now, science can be a bit of a funny thing with a mind of its own. Week 2 started normally enough with an introduction into the world of chick embryology, before I caught a cold bug that was making its rounds and having to take a day and a half off. At the rate we're going here at Embryology, coming back the next afternoon felt like years had gone by in terms of what I've missed, which was a good chunk of the mouse module. Anyway, before dragging my sorry self to bed following chick embryo demonstrations and a chalk talk on experimental design by Claudio Stern, my little brain got hit by a biological question that I really wanted to address (let's not bore you with the details here) and to do this in the chick embryo one of the ways to go about it was via neural crest grafts...which I have never done before. Boy, did I try. Tried so hard it became a mini obsession for the week. Hah. I set up my station in the microscope/electroporation lab like so:
And got quite good at doing this (removing albumin to lower the yolk + embryo prior to windowing for in ovo manipulation). It was oddly very satisfying...
Here is one of the four grafts I managed to complete. The donor tissue came from GFP transgenic eggs. None survived 48 hours later unfortunately *sad face*.
But that's just how it is. Failed experiments are something you very quickly get used to here! However, as I said earlier, science has a mind of its own. More often that not, the experiment you really wanted to work and spent so much effort in absolutely refuses to cooperate, and the one you did not obsess over as much decides to be the one that worked beautifully.
Going way back to day one on the course, Shun (Shunsuke Sogabe from the University of Queensland) and I had worked out a sea urchin experiment that we got very excited about...which failed miserably (an on-going theme...haha). We then came up with an alternative plan that involved the very skilled hands of the man himself, Dave McClay (Uncle Dave), in sea urchin embryo manipulation, and left them to develop in the cool incubator. Throughout the past two weeks this experiment progressed at a snail's pace, usually going a tiny step forward when either Shun or I go 'Hey, remember those embryos?'. We now call this the Afterthought Experiment. To cut a long story short, after multiple late night 'Hey, remember those embryos?' moments, we finally finished and imaged the stuff. And it was good.
Quote of the week
"I have to get used to failure." - Shane Jinson, Course Assistant
Yours,
Sharkie