Host-Pathogen Interactions and Spleen Deliveries -Day in the life of a scientist

Name: Ryan Hames Location: Leicester, UK Hello! Who are you and what are you working on? I’m Ryan Hames and I’m a fourth-year Ph.D. student in my final year. My Ph.D. looks at host-pathogen interactions specifically with regard to tissue-resident macrophages, so I work a lot with macrophages in the spleen and liver to look […]

Life as a physician and researcher: You can have both.

Name:Dr. Jarone Lee, MD Location:  Boston, MA, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School The number of lab members or colleagues (excluding PI, it’s ok to be solo!): Physical lab 0, but if you consider my collaborators and partners in research, I would say 100s.  Graduation Date: BS, UC Berkeley (1999), MPH, Drexel University (2003), MD, […]

Vibrating Microtomes: What They Are & Their Applications

What are Vibrating Microtomes? Before the tissue slicers, scientists had to manually cut biological materials with their tools, which required meticulous work for great precision. With the invention of the tissue slicers, mainly the microtomes (from the Greek mikros, meaning “small,” and temnein, meaning “to cut”), biological specimens such as sensitive tissues, brain slices, and […]

Cardiac Electrophysiology: How to Setup a Cardiac Electrophysiology Lab

Are you looking for Slice Electrophysiology devices for your lab? Click here Electrophysiology Lab: Definition Electrophysiology labs are centers that provide care for people having arrhythmias (heart rhythm disorders) or neural disorders.[1] Thus, the lab is split into cardiac electrophysiology and neural electrophysiology labs. Electrophysiology labs perform electrophysiology studies. In a heart condition, the heart’s […]

How to Measure Soil Strength and the Factors Affecting It

Soil or shear strength refers to the soil’s capacity to accommodate and withstand a structural load without shearing or deformation. It alludes to the soil’s mechanical properties — whether it could remain cohesive while being subjected to an external force.[1] It is one of the essential mechanical properties of the soil. In geology and civil […]

Isoflurane For Animal Anesthesia: How to Safely Use

What Is Isoflurane? Isoflurane, also known by the brand names, Forane and Terrel, is an inhalation anesthetic used in animal research to induce general anesthesia.[1] Figure: The structure of Isoflurane. Inhalation anesthetics are medicines or anesthetic agents that induce and maintain general anesthesia via inhalation through a mask. General anesthesia is a combination of medicines […]

Basics Of Cell Culture: How To Set Up A Cell Culture Lab

Cell culture is a technique to isolate and culture cells of interest in laboratories. The term cell generally refers to mammalian cells, although the principles apply to prokaryotes and other eukaryotic cells. In cell cultures, animal cells are isolated from tissue sections and cultured in optimal conditions, including temperature, pH, and carbon dioxide to oxygen […]

Is Sevoflurane A Better Anesthetic Agent?

What is Sevoflurane? Sevoflurane is a volatile, non-flammable, and highly fluorinated methyl isopropyl ether anesthetic agent used to induce and maintain general anesthesia in patients or lab animals.[1] Figure: Chemical structure of Sevoflurane.[1] General anesthesia is a combination of drugs used during surgeries, medical procedures, or dissection of live animals in lab experiments to create […]

What Are the Different Types of Nucleic Acids Extraction Methods?

Nucleic acids such as deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA) are macromolecules that carry genetic information in organisms. DNA consists of double nucleotide strands that are complementary to one another. The sequence of nucleotides signifies genetic elements, including genes, transcription factors, and regulators. RNA only has one nucleotide strand transcribed from one DNA strand. […]