4 replies to this topic

[henri]

I'm in the middle of my studies and I'm now choosing what kind of lab rotations to have. They're not very comprehensive, but one could go to the right direction from the beginning. So what to choose? I was thinking about going for gene + nuclear transfer related stuff and the bone marrow manipulations. I know there's no general answer for this, one must do what one needs to. However, the people who have a lab background could share their thoughts about why they have chosen a certain path or, alternatively, what their aspirations are. Here's the list of the alternatives I have at this point: http://www.uku.fi/ai..._rotation.shtml.

[John Schloendorn]

Great plan, I completely agree. Not sure how many you do, so in addition there are also a few basic methods I would have loved to have more exposure to during undergrad:

- realtime pcr
- confocal microscopy
- protein changes by 2D electrophoresis
- Micro array methods

[henri]

Thanks for the suggestions, sorry for my replying late. So, I should pick 4 (I've already taken in vivo in gene transfer and bone marrow extraction/transplantation). And then there are 2-3 larger projects and the master's thesis. It would certainly be convinient if I could combine the one's I do in rotations with some new stuff, so I must keep looking for a good idea for a small research project.

- realtime pcr
- confocal microscopy
- protein changes by 2D electrophoresis
- Micro array methods

Would you like to use these for lyso-sens? For finding the xenohydrolases and seeing if they're getting expressed in the target cells?

[John Schloendorn]

I think microarray methods can be a powerful platform for lysosens, especially neuro-lyso-sens, if one has thorough experience with them. If the rotation also includes protein microarrays, I would definitely look into it. You might do the same assays on a microarray as you would in your test tubes, just smaller, cheaper, faster and way more high-throughput.

2D electrophoresis can also be useful for finding enzymes, for example if addition of your substrate to your cells induces a great change in one spot, this would be a likely candidate for an enzyme associated to breakdown of your substrate. But this is just one among many ways to do it...