A Day in the Lab

 

Hello everyone!

I think this post is especially for those who loves microbiology and would like to work with wet lab; as well as for anyone who has a desire to know about the routine in a virology/molecular lab. Therefore, I will share with you what a typical day in the virology and molecular lab looks like.

Firstly, I worked for around six years with viruses, specifically small ruminant lentivirus in a huge research company. Fortunately, we always had what we needed. Furthermore, I was fortunate to work with incredible people, and a wonderful and supportive supervisor. Consequently, this made the routine at work easier. However, working with viruses requires patience, resilience, calmness, dedication, commitment, and without a doubt passion for the science.

The routine is not always just following protocols. The routine often involves dealing with problems, and being prepared to solve them. Furthermore, learning something new  every day, whether it is to learn a new technique or to gain background,  both professionally and personally.

To finish this introduction, working in a lab means collaborating  with colleagues, meeting deadlines, being prepared to overcome challenges, identify and correct errors. Additionally, it is important not to get discouraged and to persist, or to have a plan B ready. :)

Now, let’s know a little about the routine lab. I hope this inspires you in your future scientific career.

A typical day at the virology lab

The first thing

What I did when I arrived at the lab was to take the necessary solutions for cell culture out of the freezer and put them in hot air oven in 37^oC for around 30min. After, I needed to prepare the laminar airflow cabinet. The cabinet stays in a room, before going into the room I needed wash my hands  very well and a wear personal protective equipment (PPE) which includes a laboratory coat, cap, shoe covers, mask and gloves. Afterward, in the room, I sterile with alcohol 70% to laminar airflow cabinet and open the UV light for some minutes; it is where I will work with cells, so the cabinet needs to be sterilized. 

While I wait, I drink coffee and after I check if I have some solution to prepare, clean glassware, verifying how the cells are doing, and etc. J

Changing cell culture media

First of all, I need to wash my hands and wearing all PPE. All solutions (hot air oven) and materials such as beackers and pipettes are sterilized with alcohol and placed inside the cabinet. The medium solution is prepared and placed inside the cell culture bottles (We started with one bottle, but they keep multiplying and we have a lot of work to do), and after them is placed in CO2 incubator to 37ºC.   We need healthy cell for the viruses. Then, we take care of them like babies. :) Understanding Cell Culture will be the next post.

If you want to watch the process, I found this video showing all the process that I talked above: 

More:

👉Reading: What are the components of cell culture medium?

👉video: Animal cell culture media

Other tasks of the lab

There are other important things to do that are not so glamorous. However, they are essential for the proper functioning of the lab. These include,for example, glassware cleaning, which in  the virology lab has a special protocol with many steps. Another essential task is the weekly cleaning of the lab, we need to clean all equipment, floors, counters, etc. Alcohol 70%, Lysoform and Bleach are used for cleaning.

Other activities are necessary for example preparing solutions for cell culture media, and diagnostics test, this requires time and patience. When you work in a virology lab you need to do diagnostic tests as well, like PCR, western blot, ELISA, electrophoresis, etc. we frequently visit other labs to perform these tests. I spent a lot of time in molecular lab, for example. (I can talk about Diagnostic tests in another post.)

Challenges

In a virology laboratory, there are many challenges, such as:

Complexity of Viral Cultures: We need to maintain the growing viral cultures that require precise conditions and careful monitoring, as even slight variations can impact results. Furthermore, it is necessary to be very careful with contamination in cell culture bottles, months of work can be lost due to contamination. therefore, it is necessary to take responsibility and to take  your work very seriously.

Technical Precision: Laboratory work often demands exact measurements and adherence to protocols to ensure reliable and reproducible outcomes.

Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Effective research involves collaboration between experts in different fields, requiring clear communication and coordination. We need to be prepared for different opinions, teaching and learning from other researchers. Knowing how to listen is very important as well. We need to have patience, however sometimes it is necessary to be firm about certain isuues, rules and tasks are to be fulfilled. Why I say that? Because people don’t always do what needs to be done.

Data Management: Handling and analyzing large amounts of data, especially when making diagnostic tests, can be challenging and you need to be careful, calm, and write everything down.

Contamination Risks: Another issue is to prevent contamination, it is crucial, as it can compromise experiments and lead to inaccurate results. Rigorous protocols and cleanliness are essential.

That’s it for today! And never forget to clean and store correctly all materials and data used in the lab. Bye!