Problems are so entertaining, especially with a well-stocked, large lab that has just about any ingredients I could possibly want. Because of the resources, I've tried all sorts of different things this summer... choosing to switch techniques when one doesn't get results rather than troubleshoot the same one. The latest problem I've been having is in trying to clone the 3'UTR of a particular gene from human cDNA. Having tried many times, always ending up with the wrong gene, I began to suspect that perhaps the library I'm using simply doesn't have it.
Finally today I had the idea that since UTRs are not dependent on RNA splicing.. human genomic DNA should have my sequence. And where do I get human genomic DNA? Well, there's plenty of that lying around too! hahaha. So I took a pipette tip and rubbed off some of my cheek cells, pulled out a few strands of my hair and took the follicle cells. Broke the cells apart, got some DNA. And hopefully, voila.. We'll see how it goes!
As some of you know, my undergraduate project involved studying blood samples from various people. My most frequent subject (although excluded from the official data analysis) was myself. I've never felt any fear of needles, and always felt intrigued (and even safe from disease) when working with my own blood. I've gotten to see how the composition of my white blood cells changed dependent on the season and even what they look like in different settings. The things I've studied of myself have been harmless, but what about when it comes to real disease?
Consider the story of the Nobel Prize winners for medicine in 2005. They faced strong resistance to their data which showed that H. pylori (bacteria) was the primary cause of gastric ulcers rather than stress or acid. When infection in animals did not produce similar disease, they used themselves as subjects. In an exhibition of their dedication and belief in their work, they drank a bunch of H.pylori and showed, first, that it caused ulcers. Then they treated themselves with an antibiotic regimen to show that they could be cured. Prior to their work, companies were spending great amounts of money on treating ulcers, but few were investing in research on H. pylori (since also from the economic view, you'd earn more by having people continually pay for treatment rather than a one-time, final solution). Amazing what results confidence and dedication can get, but would you, would I, have been able to do such an experiment?
3 comments:
You do need to be careful, however, as Venter recently came under fire for using his own DNA in the HGP. Publishing such results may prove to be dangerous.
lol interesting. i went and found an article, and he sounds unfazed. I did exclude myself just to allow for a natural variability, but I don't think there is anything ethically wrong with the matter. After all, we ourselves are one of the human race.
lol, i've never met anyone who likes to play in the lab as much as you do.
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