This post is now the obituary for my cells. My human aortic endothelial cells were wonderful. They had been growing for several days and after careful preparation were finally ready to be stained and tested against my botanical compounds.
My Monday and Tuesday were spent making sure the cells got seeded into my plate and had the right media so they could be prepared. Wednesday came, and it was those cells' time to shine. I was completely solo for the first time with the cells, and we were both up for the challenge. It was me and that protocol against the world. The protocol was for staining the cells to see how they were reacting to inflammation and if the plants did their jobs in preventing it. Staining the cells is a long and tedious process, but the end result would be worth it.
It is now Wednesday morning, and after 4 hours of waiting, it's time to stain. I fought lab demons the entire time. I am navigating this new protocol that I've only seen twice and on test tubes, not a plate. I am struggling, asking questions, and persevering through. The staining process in all takes me 8 hours to complete, and I'm finally on the last step to ensure the cells are “fixed” and ready to spend the night in the fridge. All of the sudden I get to a step that has me unsure, it said to suck the liquid off of the cells but the cells were suspended in that liquid. If I sucked it away would I suck all of the cells with it? It was good of me to question it, but I didn’t trust my instincts. I sucked all of the cells right away and straight into a bleach trap where they were never seen again. To make all things better, once again, this happened ON THE LAST STEP!
While this is a bit dramatic, it still sucked. My hard work that I had spent hours on was gone in less than 30 seconds. I kept looking around my cell room like I was in The Office and there were hidden cameras. I told everyone and was immediately reassured that it was all ok and that they had made similar mistakes. I learned the importance of reading protocol beforehand and imagining going through all of the steps to catch errors like that.
At the end of the day, you can’t cry over killed cells because you can always try again, and part of the science process is learning from these mistakes. Next week I will better prepare and will attack this experiment again and hopefully will have some cool data to share.
“Rest in peace cells, you did well while you lasted and hopefully I don’t accidentally suck you away next time”