it's a hardy cell line, not fine china

I *heart* bosses like the one I'm working for.

He has me looking into the role this one amino acid plays into metabolism. He's noted that this amino acid is very temperature sensitive.

Lately, my metabolic assays have looked like crap. So I asked if I could offer suggestions as to why I think it's crap.

(A bit more tactfully...)"You've got some silly rules for cell culture. For example, putting the media into an incubator for two hours to adjust the pH when it goes basic. Also, you're supposed to bring the media to room temperature every time you use it. It's a fibroblast cell - not stem cells. I used to use cold media to cell lines and they survived."

After all, if this amino acid is temperature sensitive, if it takes you a month to go through the media, when you get towards the last half, perhaps that amino acid isn't there anymore.

"You might be on to something. I think I made a note to look into that in the past, but I guess I never did."

So I've got a game plan based on my suggestion.

Now hopefully I'll get proven right. I think that when I was going through a bottle of media every week or week and half, the assays were working.

I just like it when a boss is willing to listen to your logic (especially when it has a real logic to it), and try and work on the idea.

Early taste of fall

We got a nice treat in the desert. Although the storm system that passed through last weekend didn't bring the house much rain, it really cooled off the temperatures. It hasn't been 90 degrees in a few days!

Last night by dinner time, we turned off the AC and opened the doors. The cats loved it because they could smell the great outdoors. And it cooled off to the mid 60's overnight. I needed all my blankets overnight!

Usually this doesn't happen until October. It's not supposed to last, and it's supposed to be in the mid-90's today. But it inspired me to find some fall recipes at Gluten Freeda. I'm going to try their golden pumpkin bread this weekend.