This Weeks Post is Brought to you by the Letter J

Josh, J-E-L-L-O, jousting....three words that describe this week in the lab. Protein extraction through electrophoresis was not something that I was not familiar with before this semester. I successfully cut up my frozen fish samples into 0.25cm, watched C3PO add DDT to it (its harmful if inhaled), placed it in the water bath for 5 minutes at 95 degrees Celsius, loaded my gel (which comes pre-assembled in a very hard plastic cassette, added buffer to the tank, set the volts at 200, and crossed my fingers for about an hour. After the cycle was complete I rinsed the gel cassette and realized that this particular cassette requires a "key" which is not included, but can be purchased for $5.00 (plush shipping/handling). Let's Just say that I was  not pleased with the manufacturers of this particular product. I had spent hours on this particular gel and was not going to lose my results because of a silly "key". I did some quick investigating of the mechanics of this cassette and decided that the most rational approach would be to  just break it. I began by using the plastic comb that was removed from the wells of the gel but the cassette was not budging and was not giving up. Luckily Josh (the biker scout), sensing my frustration at Jousting with this cassette, came to the rescue with an extremely large flat head screwdriver. I quickly accepted this gift, had a fleeting thought of smashing the cassette with the tool, and finally decided to take his advice and use it to pry the thing apart. After a few minutes the cassette acquiesced and released my beloved gel. After it was rinsed and stained (thanks again to Josh for help with this process) I recorded my results. I was left with a gel full of data that was going to start to degrade which gave me a very sad feeling. I was not ready to part with this little masterpiece so I immediately went online to find out how others have successfully handled this situation. The answer was immediate and brilliant.....J-E-L-L-O! Gels can be preserved in a 90/10 Jello solution for long lengths of time. Now....on to Western Blotting!!