Obvious lab advice 🥼

Hi everyone!

Here's some obvious lab advice.

No explanation needed.

1. Not everyone loves to go fishing. So don’t leave the scoop for the ice machine in the ice. 
2. If it’s socially acceptable and you’ve got shared speakers, music can be a fantastic way to liven up your lab atmosphere—though you’ll need to find the musical common ground. Avoid divisive artists, like Coldplay, Taylor Swift, and Kanye. If you’re struggling, agree on a decade or a radio station. And if all else fails, you may hum quietly to yourself until someone tells you to be quiet.
3. Biology is hard. Recognize your wins, no matter the size—whether it’s a publication, a successful experiment, or a breakthrough in understanding.
4. Passive aggressive post-it notes—if you’re going to leave these around the lab, please make them funny.
5. When making conversation in the lab, read the room. That person in the pipetting “zone” probably won’t appreciate you telling them what you ate for lunch. The interruption will make them completely forget whether they’ve just added their reagent to well A22 or B22, and you’ll risk ruining their experiment. 
6. Back up your data. Then back it up again. The only thing worse than an experiment failing is not having proof that it happened in the first place. 
7. When it comes to lab housekeeping, always go above and beyond. That means cleaning up common areas, putting things back where they belong, taking out overflowing bins, and following the lab housekeeping rota without your lab manager chasing you up about it first. 
8. Don't take pipette tips out from the middle of a fully filled box instead of starting from the first row. Please, don't. 
9. Gamifying your lab work can be fun and helps you get stuff done. Try racing a labmate to see who can discard supernatant from their centrifuged tubes first. Just be careful not to accidentally discard your cells in the process (been there, done that).
10. If gloves are part of the PPE in your lab, wear them. You don’t want to be the daredevil who goes gloveless when handling hazardous materials.
11. No matter how excited you are to show off those new sandals, premier them after that 8-hour experiment in the lab. Protect your toes. 
12. Label your reagents properly—concentration, sterility, the date it was made, and your initials. There’s nothing worse than finding a bottle of an unidentified liquid and accidentally drinking it. 
13. Some days, science just doesn’t work. Try not to be disheartened and try again tomorrow.  

Catch you next time,

—Fatima, Research Scientist I, Synthace

🥶 Lessons learned from 18 months in a cold room

Understandably, one of them was that when it's 4 degrees, even if you're wearing 4 layers underneath your lab coat, focusing on purifying plant enzymes is impossible. But our Chief Scientific Officer's more profound realization was that he could've avoided the whole experience entirely with Synthace. 

Read Markus' story 

🎙️ Talking shop with Life Science Success

From realizations that dads might actually know what they're talking about, to optimistic outlooks on the future, Markus' conversation with Life Science Success' host Don Davis covered a lot of ground. A must-listen for those pondering how to make technology play a leading role in life sciences innovation.  

Listen now

❓We're taking questions for DOE Office Hours

On August 15th at 4 pm BST / 11 am ET, we're loaning out our DOE evangelists Sid Sadowski and JAJA Arpino's decades of experience with Design of Experiments. Whether you need help choosing a design or building models during analysis, submit a question in advance and come along to hear their answers.    

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🔗 Content we're loving

Stimulation of hair regrowth in an animal model of androgenic alopecia using 2-deoxy-D-ribose

Why we loved it:

There's a reason so many people travel to Turkey for hair transplants on the cheap—for many, having a full head of hair is a confidence booster.

That's why this study showing that a simple sugar, 2-Deoxy-D-ribose (2dDR), could be potentially harnessed as a topical treatment for hair loss happening in male pattern baldness, is particularly exciting.

2dDR was previously found to stimulate angiogenesis, proliferation of endothelial cells, and accelerate wound healing, so its potential for hair regrowth was explored in comparison to the go-to current treatment Minoxidil, known to cause various side effects. Looking at a mouse model of male androgen-induced hair loss, 2dDR was able to achieve 80-90% hair regrowth seen with Minoxidil, possibly offering a cheaper and safer hair loss treatment alternative.

Mitochondrial H₂O₂ release does not directly cause damage to chromosomal DNA

Why we loved it:

Textbooks might tell you that mitochondria produce reactive oxygen species (ROS), which then cause oxidative DNA damage and mutation. But it turns out this notion has actually never been directly validated until now.

Mitochondria produce ROS in the form superoxide (O₂•−) , which is rapidly converted to the more stable hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), known to oxidize DNA.

This study employed the enzyme D-amino acid oxidase (DAAO) fused to various localization tags to assess location dependent response to H₂O₂. The findings went against the long-accepted dogma: Physiologically relevant concentrations of H₂O₂ released from mitochondria-bound DAAO did not cause nuclear DNA damage!

The untold story of the Human Genome Project: How one man’s DNA became a pillar of genetics 

Why we loved it:

A perfect example of what can go wrong when you're pressured to get things done to a deadline (and how drama isn’t just for reality TV shows). Even scientific research projects, particularly at an international scale, have their moments, given the huge number of people involved and the high stakes to succeed.

This report delves into archived emails and documents showing some of the controversies surrounding the Human Genome Project, a 13-year global scientific endeavour to deliver the first sequence of the human genome.

The Automated Lab 

Why we loved it:

Lab automation is still somewhat of a new field—and due to lack of widely available educational resources, can be a bit of a mystery to many scientists.

We’re excited to see Madeline Wolf launch this project intended to close this gap. We'll be keeping our eyes peeled for what comes next.

About Synthace

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