2016/02/13

Experiments

So far, I was doing research with other people's data by analyzing it (image processing, finding some equations, ...). But now I work on my own project and take data myself which is a totally different experience!

I am supposed to make a microtubuli on my own under certain conditions and there are quite a few papers about it, so I read them and wrote a protocol for the experiment (a protocol is similar to a cooking recipe; it tells you which amounts to take for which time under such and such conditions).

However, I tried the protocol twice and I didn't really see what I wanted when I looked at my "microtubuli" under the microscope (some of the ingredients were nicely separated etc...). Unfortunately, there are so many factors which could have caused the polymerization of the tubulin (the protein, microtubuli are made of) to fail. One of them might be the high sensitivity of proteins to freezing and re-freezing again. We'll just have to try it with "fresh" tubulin. I mean, it's great do my own experiments, but it's also a bit frustrating because nearly nothing works the first time you do it...

But we're lucky: Tubulin itself is hard to extract from cells and usually really expensive - but we've got a group on campus who're producing tubulin and we just can ask them for some ;)