Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Can't get you out of my mind

Once upon a time (not too long ago though, maybe like 2 years), I had the privilege to test out custom made antibodies that were made for two transcription factors (please note the sarcastic tone when I say privileged). No other company was making antibodies for out TFs of interest and custom made antibodies seemed like the best option. After spending about a year, performing countless immunohistochemistry experiments, western blots, I was finally able to convince my boss that they weren't working (and by they, i mean about 12 different Abs). He was so convinced that they should/would work, No matter how many times I tried, it was always "user error". Now, don't get me wrong, I do believe in "user error" when it comes to experiments that should work but wouldn't work. However, this was a case of pure madness, and I just hated blots and looking at sections under the microscope for a very long time, not to mention the loss of self-esteem. Those Abs never worked, to this day my boss still tries them out on his own. I feel sad for him. oh well.

Fast forward today, we just purchased an Ab for pH3 and it worked so perfectly in my second trial that I almost shed a tear (almost though, you know what the song says: "big girls don't cry"). Why can't all the Abs work like this? So, I can stare at the sparkly signals through the objective and be happy all the time and not fuss and cuss. Oh the wonderful world of science.

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