The Pipette Warrior

In a series of blog posts, shortly followed by this one, I will start by building a timeline of the events that have taken place to date, precautions that need to be taken as a community and our future with COVID-19.

by Zaira Hira The first fully synthetic plastic also known as bakelite was created in the early 20th century. Bakelite was not only a good insulator; it was also durable, heat resistant, and, Bakelite was mouldable into almost anything. It was a revolutionary invention. The demand for plastic plummeted during the World War II where it was used in helmet linings, body armour, parachutes and ropes. Since then, the demand for plastics has increased till present day. While having numerous uses in homes, industries and market, plastic's uncontrolled production has led to a troublesome situation for our planet. The worst property of plastic is its inability to decompose. They stay in the environment forever. Biodegradable plastics may decompose but only under controlled conditions. A few months ago, an image of a seahorse took over the internet like storm. It was captured by Justin Hofman. Seahorses grab onto sea weeds so that they may carried away by currents. This seah...

The United Nations recognizes 19 th November as International Toilet Day. International Toilet Day may strike as humorous to certain people, whereas others might choose to overlook its existence. Almost, 2.5 billion people on the planet are deprived of access to clean sanitation. This not only impacts their day to day lives but also exposes them to preventable diseases like cholera and typhoid. Unfortunately, Pakistan is the 7 th worst country in terms of availability of basic sanitation facilities. Within the country, 42% of the total population is lacks access to basic sanitation, whereas 37% do not have a working wastewater disposal system in place. According to a report by United Nation’s children agency, 22 million Pakistanis relieve themselves in the open. Pakistani women and children are the ones greatly affected by the lack of decent sanitation and proper working toilets. The condition worsens in rural areas, where only 48% of the people have acces...

by Miriam Kathleen Gomez Why is it so difficult to treat cancer? These are the questions that very often cross our minds.   As a cancer researcher, I often wonder if curing cancer will ever be possible. We have come so far in research with new techniques and instruments being developed every day making things like sequencing the whole genome possible. We have successfully eradicated diseases like small pox . . . . . . . but not cancer. Why is it? Why is cancer so different from other diseases? Cancer cells are cells from the body that have acquired an ability to grow uncontrollably. Most of the times when a normal cell converts into a cancerous cell the immune system of the body detects the change and kills the cancerous cell, but sometimes the cancer cell can disguise itself as a normal cell and go on dividing unchecked thus forming a tumour. One of the reasons curing cancer is difficult is because cancer is not one disease with one magic cure....

Starting off with optimizing a PCR can be a daunting task. Optimization outcomes vary widely with reaction temperatures, reagent consistency and sometimes even pipetting technique. The following guide will help you to optimize your PCR results in no time. Image Credits: Lab Manager 1. Primer Selection Primer selection is the first step towards a successful PCR is primer selection. There are two ways you can go with this. The first is to select primers that have been already reported in previous publications. It is a shortcut but care must be taken to select primers that have been reported in a large number of current publications.  The second way that you can go around is with designing a primer of your own. Online programs such as the  primer designing tool  by NCBI can help you create new primers and also ensure the integrity of previously reported primers. 2. Order Multiple Primers When ordering custom made primers for a particular gene, you c...

The Threat of Heavy Metal Pollution Heavy metals can contaminate the soil, from where they can enter the food chain that one way or another ends up on our dinner plate. Once heavy metals are ingested, they can permanently reside within the body and cannot be removed from the system. Heavy metals naturally exist in the environment but are almost always concentrated as a result of anthropogenic activities like mining, industrial effluents, lead batteries, vehicle emissions, fertilizers and plastics.  Common sources of heavy metal contamination include mining, industrial effluents and vehicle emissions. Through the soil, heavy metals can contaminate crops and persists within the muscle of livestock and fish.  Foods most commonly contaminated  with heavy metals include: rice, lentils, spices, green leafy vegetables, chicken and fish. Food items commonly contaminated with Heavy metals. Common Heavy Metals in the Environment Heavy metals most persistent i...

The technical term for reverse engineered somatic cells is known as induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSC's). These cells are reprogrammed through genetic manipulation that reverses them into a Pluripotent stem cell. A pluripotent stem cell is formed in later stages of embryonic development, however is capable of giving rise to most of the cell types. Since, iPSCs are engineered from body tissues, they are considered as a more ethical substitute for sourcing stem cells. How was the First iPSC Engineered? The process of iPSC Engineering. Image:  University of Utah Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC's) are first isolated from the patient and multiplied in a petri dish. Mostly, fibroblasts are used for this purpose because they have more genetic elasticity. Next the cells are exposed to reprogramming factors that are four transcription factors, namely: Oct4 , Sox2 , cMyc and Klf4 . For this purpose attenuated viruses carrying the target genes are used to '...