and lo, the darkness fled, and light came to the land... 

Boy, have I been bitchy and ranty lately. I've been all I HAVE NOTHING GOOD TO POST, SO PLEASE ACCEPT PICTURES OF KNITTING AND MY DOG TO APPEASE THE DEMANDING MASSES!!! BECAUSE IF I POST HOW I'M REALLY FEELING, CHILDREN WILL CRY! THERE WILL BE MOANING! AND GNASHING OF TEETH! BEWARE!!!

But so far, no one has complained.

So why was my mood so dark for so long?

Well, some of you may remember my adventures in 2D gels. All you need to know is that the 2D gels are a way for me to test that the yeast strains that I made are working correctly. It is very important that the yeasties are doing what I hope they're doing, because a lot of people besides myself are using these yeast strains in their projects. In fact there is a PAPER...IN PRINT at the moment that is BASED on the foundation that these strains are working correctly.

But the last 2D gel I did, while very crappy looking (see above pic), MIGHT have indicated that one of my strains was not behaving itself. In fact it might have been doing the exact OPPOSITE of what everyone was expecting. And let me tell you how VERY BAD THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN FOR ME, THE WHOLE LAB, AND PEOPLE IN OTHER LABS. We're talking lynch mobs. Torches and pitchforks.

All coming after...me.

This is the second time I've made these strains - the first batch had other minor (or major, depending on the application) complications. If I had to make a strain for the THIRD TIME...

There's no way. It would have delayed me a year. Delayed EVERYONE a year. and the paper in print would have to be retracted.

I'm not sure how I could stress how important it was. My graduate carreer, and possibly even my LIFE was depending on this - because if it all went wrong NOT ONLY would I have probably quit grad school, I probably would have been put on suicide watch. It's not so much that MY research would be affected, I could live with that. BUT the other people who's research it would have screwed up. That's what would really devastate me.

BUT....

There's another NEWER test that's QUICKER than a 2D gel (which...from cell culture to DNA isolation to phosphoimager can take 2 weeks - in contrast this takes 4 days). It's based on a phenomenom noticed by another lab here - so while the techniques are well established, the application I'm using it for is not. Therefore, I will STILL have to do a 2D gel. But only if the results are good. If not....then....no 2D gel. No nothing. Done. At least I would find out QUICKLY if I needed to fall on my sword.

No sword neccessary. Everything is...O-FUCKING-K! Just got the results this morning, in time to give lab meeting.

Not only THAT...but we'd like to publish a techniques paper, showing how this new protocol application can replace the 2D gel in certain circumstances.

ANOTHER PAPER! WITH MY NAME ON IT!

So fucking happy. N was so happy she got me a Twix bar from the machine. Of course, it had fallen down while she was getting her Starburst, so it was a freebee...but still. Free chocolate...for me. We're all pretty happy around here. And I feel like a 2000lb weight is off my chest.

*siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh*

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