Kids visiting

As Peter'd told me yesterday, a group of students (and their teacher) come to our lab...at 12:20! As I was handling my Campys and to prevent from contamination, I was not able to talk or even open mouth, for in case (this is Peter's idea, though). And actually I was picking colonies from heaps of CSA, I could hardly pay attention on them. Probably owing to the CampyHouses on the bench behind me, Peter realized what I was doing and explained to them briefly (although they're not supposed to understand). They stayed in our lab about 10 min (I guess) and left E block at 13:30, which was my lunch time today. By the way, we took our 8-channel pipette apart, cleaned and lubricated it. It was a bit stiff before but now it's much better. And where is Katherine anyway? ...Her boyfriend is coming to NZ today and she's gone to Auckland to pick him up!

MIC (tube edition)

Actually I didn't expect too much on tube MIC test before I checked the result this morning, but the result somewhat relieve (and puzzled) me - the MIC result is apparently perfect. Not even a contamination! So there shouldn't be any problem with my operation. But what's the cause of the weird micplate result then...???

"Are you gonna do your labwork tomorrow?"

When Peter asked me this question, I was a bit puzzled why he asked this. Of course I'm. Then he told me there were a few children (Ouch! I hate this) gonna visit our campus and also would look around our lab so that they'd have some idea what Uni is like. They are said to be around 12-year-olds...that means they have completely no idea about security or danger of bacteria!! Goodness me...

MIC test with tubes

Not knowing what should be done to solve the mysteric contamination in microplate MIC test, I decide to change the test a bit - do the test with tubes rather than with microplate. Unlike microplate methods, I can't use 8-channel pipette and hence I have to add broth and honey, serial dilute the honey and inoculate cultures to each tube one by one with single pipette. It also use up much more honey and broth than microplate edition. It's indeed tiring, but whatelse can I do with MIC test?

Campys moving new house

My "CampyHouse" (a plastic candle jar) is gonna melt by the flame after a few weeks' usage, hence I need to find another substitution. It needs to be... 1. made of steel. 2. able to block air leakage. 3. large enough to contain more petri dishes than the current one, but small enough to fit in both 42C and 37C incubaters. I got another 25 cultures from Medlab (Campy x24, Salmonella x1), and I also suspect some factors such as antibiotics in media and temperatures may infect the groth of campys; therefore I went to the Warehouse near our campus and found 2 cake-alike stock pots which would meet my needs. Actually they look working perfectly. Their lids are made of transparant plastic(? maybe) and I just need to put them upside down so that the steel bodies come upward and won't have to be concerned about the candle flame. (so now they've got steel lids!). Furthermore, compare with the preceding candle jar, it's much easier to pack 24 petri dishes, which is more than 16 before! And don't forget they've got "transparant base" with them, so observing their groth without opening the container would also be possible as well (not quite sure yet though). With these merits, they cost just NZ$20 for both. It's really a bargain!! # New CampyHouses packed with... @42C: Charcoal selective agar ("CSA") plates from Medlab x6 (4 isolates/plate) Homemade CSA (with antibiotics added) x8 (3 isolates/plate) Homemade CSA (antibiotics not added) x8 (3 isolates/plate) @37C: Homemade CSA (with antibiotics added) x8 (3 isolates/plate) Homemade CSA (antibiotics not added) x8 (3 isolates/plate)

Fire alarm

I had a late lunch break today owing to my lovely Campys. Although those campys still not growing quite well, I have to inoculate them into Glycerol-TS broth (otherwise they're getting too old - 5 days incubation).As there are more than 40 isoates this week, it took me a bit longer to accomplish the task. It had been 13:00 when I was going to dump my lunch in my mouth. Unfortunately, fire alarm forced us to get out of the building and stay outside until firemen arrival and make sure everything is under control. So what should I do with my lunch box?! ...sit on the lawn and eat there. (Hey, I never imagine I'd have an outdoor meal today) Eventually it's been confirmed that a concrete cutter gets fire with dust and, fortunately, no disaster happened. I haven't even smelt the smoke!!

Muller Hinton broth...forgotten!!

Somehow I forgot to add Muller Hinton broth in the list sent to Kerry yesterday. Hence asked her to order the broth this afternoon.

PCR reagents

Sent Kerry the list of PCR reagents this morning. The results of Salmonella spp. MIC test are still strange - contaminated in fairly strange way. Even Peter and Kerry have no idea what cause the problem. Mmm... :(

Price of lab facilities

Recently I'm interested in the price of lab equipments and reagents, and have made some surveys. Here is the brief list. Biorad microplate reader ----- NZ$ 20,000 Labsystems microplate reader (the "icebox" one) ----- NZ$ 20,000 bMG microplate reader ----- NZ$ 60,000 => that is, its incubater function worths NZ$ 40,000 :P Fixing Zencom pipetter ----- NZ$ 350 Racked and sterilized 250 ul filter tips ----- NZ$ 150 $Racked tips ~ $Bulk tips x1.5 - x2 Disposable latex gloves ~ NZ$ 87(?)

New samples from Medlab

Receive: Campylobacter spp. x42(!!) Yersinia spp. x2 Salmonella spp. x5 # Salmonella typhimurium x2 # Salmonella mississippi x1 # Salmonella enteritidis x1 # Salmonella ??????????? x1

Fruits from Peter

Peter brings 2 bags of oranges to our lab today. He said he grew them up in his garden. It must take quite a long time to finish them up... :P

Andrew gonna travel

Andrew is going to Australia for about 3 weeks for holiday. He'll mainly move around Melbourne and Sydney, so there's a chance that he'll visit John (a Chinese student stay with us before) some day (not quite sure if they really will meet each other though).

Lab meeting

We had a lab meeting at 11am today. Each student were asked to give a very brief (about 1-2 minute) talk on their projects then Kerry (and Peter) went over some safety and security issues (theft, smuggling, bunsen burner burns student's lung, etc etc etc).

Microplate reader... with ice box?!

As the schedule of our bMG microplate reader is a bit crowded, I'm trying to use another plate reader machine which is much older than the bMG one. This old machine is somewhat odd: it's connected to Mac computer, put into a "simple" incubater (heated by a lamp...). What the most awkward is that it needs an ice box to cool down, otherwise its motor would overheat... So, since the ice box is for machine, it should be a special or an order-made model, right? Well, not really. It's just a normal water bottle wrapped in towel. That's it. Very strange cooling system eh? This is said to be Peter's idea... :P

Stupid mistake

In yesterday's "charcoal agar vs blood agar" test, there's no clony can be seen in the charcoal agar plate - not even a tiny spot; it's just tidy and clear... :( Calm down and think, I realize that I've made a really stupid mistake; I shouldn't have used the ordinary Campy Selective Agar - they all contain supplements, which are actually antibiotics for inhibiting other microbes' growth. Hehhh...so I'll have to make another batch of special charcoal agar without supplement...

Salmonella sunflower????

I wrote this Monday that my Campy didn't grow up (or merely tiny spots), but fortunately they look much better this morning. On the other hand, I noticed that one of the Salmonella cultures Medlab gave me last Friday, when I innoculated its culture media (10 ul) on blood agar and incubated overnight, its colonies formed like spreading-out-sunflower. Although some Salmonella do have flagella, it is of interest that they would migrate in this way.

Charcoal agar vs Blood agar

To test if charcoal would interfere antimicrobial activity in manuka honey, I innoculate Salmonella spp.(which is easier to raise) on both CSA and Blood agar and do well diffusion test (100ul, 40% honey into each well). Hopefully I'll be able to see if there're any differences between their size of inhibition rings.

Green light for PCR reagent purchasing

On Peter's replying email he says "the costs of the materials you need is low enough to not be a problem". Hmm..."low enough" to not be a problem...then what does "high price" mean in his mind??? Anyway, the price list I gave Peter was really a rough estimate, thus I'd have to find detail prices and their distributors next.

Rough price estimate

Here is the rough estimate of the cost of the PCR reagents. Some of them are converted from US dollar to NZ dollar. Primers and reference cultures are not included. HotMaster Mix (100 U) x 2 - NZ$ 63.3 x 2 = NZ$ 126.6 DNA marker (500 ul) - NZ$ 73.6 PCR 200ul tubes (1000 pcs) - NZ$ 98.05 Agarose (50 g) - NZ$ 117 TAE 10x buffer (1 L) - NZ$ 22.6 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Sub total - NZ$ 437.85 Bromophenol blue (5 g) - NZ$ 35 Ethidium Bromide (5 g) - NZ$ 109.2 I personally wouldn't order Bromophenol blue and Ethidium Bromide as 5 g is still too lots to use for long time, and especially I wouldn't store Ethidium Bromide in our lab for years (as I must not be able to run out of them). More than NZ$ 400... that's a bit big money. How'd Peter feel after seeing this? Hope he won't get heart shock...

Campylobacter culturing with Medlab's advice

I followed Chris' (Microbiology Manager of Medlab) advise to incubate the Campylobacter species in CO2 incubater (10% CO2 at 42C) last Friday. However, when I observed those Campys this morning (which have elapsed more than 48 hr), those colonies were much smaller than what they showed me before. I even doubt if those spots I saw are exactly the Campy colonies or merely the fiber of swabs. My incubating environment is as follow: 10% CO2 42C Campylobacter Selective Agar (Charcoal agar) with supplement (cefoperazone, amphotericin) added I have decided to give them another two days to go, but I really wonder what makes them grow so slow. Could it because I streaked the swabs too much? (but there is no problem with Salmonella spp.) What else could go wrong???

Oh?! Yaaayyy~~~ FreeBSD 6.0 released!!

After a long time waiting, FreeBSD 6.0 is released. Unlike 5.x, this 6.0 looks like much more stable and faster, which is quite attractive. Mmm...OpenBSD 3.8 and FreeBSD 6.0...which on earth should I choose...?? (^^);;

Idiot!!

I'm sure is not Guyfolk night is not today but tomorrow, yet some idiots are letting some fireworks now (actually from a couple days ago) and it's really annoying!! Bang! Bang!! Bang!!!

Hamilton Medlab

To collect some more culture samples for my research work, I went to Medlab not too far away from transport centre (~15 min walk). There, Chris (Microbiology Manager) gave me Campylobacter and Salmonella swabs and showed me what Campylobacter's (and Salmonella's) colonies look like She also pointed out how they incubated the cultures - CO2 incubater with 10% CO2 at 42C for 48 hr. Come back to HRU, I tried to raise the temperature and CO2 density on our CO2 incubater...but Alas!! It somehow started to beep - a fairly sharp and non-stopping beep. Trying and discussing with Kerry, we eventually found its solution - tuning the "temperature calibration knob" - well, its manual calls that but I personally wouldn't call it knob; this name is really misleading. Anyway, let's see what these Campylobacters'll look like next monday.

mPCR and reagents

To do multiplex PCR, many chemicals have to be prepared. Also, I was told by Ray that it'd be better to purchase my own reagents. That is... Taq (for hot-start) Taq buffer dNTP mix primers TAE/TBE (electrophoresis buffer) 200 ul PCR tubes Bromophenol blue (dye) Ethidium Bromide/SYBR Green DNA marker reference cultures (positive/negative controls) ...Huuhh...Even though Eppendorf company would be cheaper to purchase from, that must be still a big expense...:( How'd Peter feel...

Yaaay!! OpenBSD 3.8 released!!

...actually it was yesterday that is released. Anyhow, some updated news and discussions about it - 'Nightmare' drove desperate user to open source Re: Computerworld: Setting the story straight... OpenBSD 3.8 improves hardware support ...and Theo de Raadt's criticism of Linux: Open source rival attacks 'terrible' Linux

Health&Safety Seminar from 0900 to 1200

Well, that's quite a rushing seminar about laboratory safety...