lab tips ( working mom) - (Apr/08/2021 )

HI

Im a full time working mom and its difficult for me spend more than 2 hours in lab on Saturday and Sundays.  Im just thinking of how I can use my time efficiently. 

e.g.

1. protein SDS gels can be prepared in advance

2. collecting protein from cell lines takes time. Has anyone just washed their cell with PBS and froze the cells in -80deg with RIPA buffer over the weekend and continued on a Monday?

3. running 3 full 96-well plates on qPCR (sybrgreen). Can I prepare all the 3 plates at once and cover them with foil in fridge.  I can just load them everytime a qPCR round  is finished?

4. any other tips for cell culture or other in vitro assays, will be appreciated?

Thank you

1) This works, but it is much more time efficient to buy them in (and when salaries and reproducibility are factored in).

2) Yes, this works, all you need to do is add the lysis buffer + protease inhibitor, resuspend and then freeze. You can also just freeze the cell pellets at -80, then thaw in cold lysis buffer.

3) Depends on the system you are using. If you were using a TaqMan assay, I would say go for it, but sybr based will depend on the polymerase being used and the primers.

4) Things you can do in limited time:

• Prepare plates for ELISAs (e.g. bind antibody to plates)
• Pre-coat tissue culture plates (if needed)
• Prepare commonly used solutions (if you aren't buying them in) such as PBS, RIPA, Tris, media (e.g. LB, SOC) etc.
• Write up lab books properly
• Data analysis
• Wash/clean/tidy work surfaces, glassware etc.
• Pre-label plates and tubes for later use

Realistically it may well be better that you spend time with your children or reading/writing than doing this sort of thing, especially if you need to commute to get to work, which soaks up a large chunk of time that would be better spent doing something useful.

Thank you. Yes I agree. But with molecular biology expts, I need to go into lab on Saturday/Sunday to collect proteins or MTT.