A day in the Life of a Lab Manager – Dr Michael Capeness
Dr Michael Capeness is a Lab Manager in the School of Biological Sciences. For Technician Week 2024 he has shared this insight into a one of his days.
Dr Michael Capeness
08:05 – I Arrive. First in, it’s nice and quiet. The coffee machines goes on, followed by my computer. Priorities first.
08:10 – I walk around the labs, make sure all is as it should be. No odd sounds from the incubators, no dripping of water, plenty of gas in the cylinders, to the anaerobic hoods. No gremlins have struck overnight.
08:13 – I load up my Inbox, to see what has occurred since leaving yesterday. I have a message for a supplier saying there is a 2 month delay on a chemical I’ve ordered. I’ll have to find a new supplier later, and inform the person who requested it.
An email from a Research Alert says there has been a relevant paper published. I open this in a tab for reading later. Another email, this time from a student asking if I could have a read of an abstract, they written to attend a conference, I reply saying ‘Sure. I’ll have it back as soon as possible’
08:21 – Coffee brewed. Cup 1 of 2 gets drunk, while the rest of the inbox is sifted through.
08:25 – I take my petri dishes of E. coli out the incubator, yesterday’s transformations went well. I plan to pick these later this afternoon, to make cultures for following day.
One of the many hot drinks brewed during a typical day
08:31 – I chat briefly to the building manager as I pass them, ‘how are you?’ ‘Have a nice evening?’ ‘Is there any update on the problem with the door yet?’ Not yet. We both agree time for more coffee is needed.
08:41 – Coffee, Cup 2 of 2 begins to get drunk, back to the emails, and I read my lab book from the previous day, updating it with today’s early results.
08:55 – The First of the lab arrive, A 3rd year PhD student. After pleasantries, they inform me they’re running low on some items, I add these to a mental list of things I intend to buy.
They also say they’ve had a few problems with yesterday’s experiments, something isn’t growing as well as it used to, and can’t work our why. I have them walk me through their experiment, have you tried this I ask, or this I ask. Yes, to both. What about trying this? A good idea we agree, though not obvious, I seem to remember it working for me years ago, so it’s worth a try.
09:15 – My supervisor arrives, they grab a cup of coffee. ‘How are you and is everything all right?’ we ask each other. ‘Everything and everyone is still in one piece’ we respond. They inform me they’ll be busy writing a grant most of this morning and ask if I can give it a look over later in the day. ‘Sure, just send it over’ I reply.
09:27 – Time for some lab work of the anaerobic kind. PPE’d up, I insert my hands into the incubator, degassing the manifolds my arms are fixed in, it’s warm, and restrictive. The plates I set up 4 days ago have signs of growth, black colonies on light brown plates. The cultures I grew two days ago have grown a mirky grey colour, 16 in total, wild-type and mutants. I take some samples out of the incubator to check under the microscope. As I make the slides, a faint sulphurous aroma is smelt…at least they smell like the right thing. Down the microscope the bacteria dart around, all the same type, all ‘happy’. I return to the incubator, and subculture them for tomorrow for who ever might need them, myself included.
Anaerobic Incubuator
10:03 – I return to my coffee, it’s cold, I drink it anyway. More people have arrived, no more coffee is left in the pot. Everyone is doing well, though one person says someone left the chemical bench a mess last night, I’ll interrogate people as I meet them, to find the culprit.
Most of the lab are here now though not all are present, some people are away on holiday/conferences, others are working from home. 11/14, a busy day. One or two have since sent me an email saying to lookout of an item arriving, or if I could take out some of the cultures from the incubator. All of which I agree to do.
10:25 – Back to the lab. PCR time. I’ve designed a new set of plasmids, the first step is to amplify the genes from its genome, so I set up those reactions, only 3 different PCRs in total, but I do a couple of different reactions conditions just in case. In to the machine for 4 hours they go.
10:52 – I walk around the labs looking for things to order, what is running short, I know people are planning a big experiment, so I’ll get extra of some items. I ask each person I find directly if they want anything, some do, some don’t.
11:01 – I’m stopped in the corridor by a researcher from another lab, they ask if they can book one of our incubators, ‘how long for?’ ‘What temperature?’ I consult the sacred booking sheet, there is one free currently, so sure they can.
11:05 – I order the items on my shopping list, and look up an alternate for the delayed chemical from earlier. Few options, but one is viable, I confirm by calling the company.
11:12 – I write a safety form for the new chemical ahead of it getting here, and add it to the 297 others we have and give a copy to the person who requested the chemical in the first place.
11:50 – Some of the items I ordered are now ready at our local store. While I’m there I pick up the parcel that the person who is away is waiting for, along with a few others. Items distributed; stocks refilled up. Back to science.
11:59 – I open up a project I’m working on, an excel file full of chemical compositions and quantities for some samples I ran yesterday, slowly the data is whittled down, arranged, and re-calculated to meaningful entries. 3700 data entries reduced to a 2 x 5 table, showing the experiment worked, but not by much. I’ll rethink the approach.
12:21 – A 2nd Year PhD student asks if I can book some time on a machine in chemistry to help them run some samples. Sure, how many samples do you have, when will they be ready, I ask. We consult the booking sheet, cross referencing our diaries, Wednesday 14:00-17:00 looks good. In the calendars it goes.
12:39 – Lunch. Some kind of sandwich, a yogurt, and a banana. I read the news from a few websites, I skim that paper I had opened, it’s not too relevant to what we do, but it’s quite interesting none-the-less.
Chemical Bench
12:45 – I’m halfway through my banana, the door opens tentatively. One of our Post-Docs has questions, they apologise for interrupting. They can’t find a chemical in the fridge, it’s on the list we keep, but it’s not there. I check, they’re right it’s not there, someone has used it up and not replaced it. Ok, says I, I know who may have some that we can borrow, off I go, tube and cap in hand, I get the chemical from them, and add it too my mental list of new things to order, having purged the previous list. Back to my banana.
13:20 – I read the students conference abstract. Pretty good, the science is spot on, perhaps a little bit of work on the phraseology is needed, but otherwise fine. I send it back with comments.
While I’m here I have a look at section of the grant my supervisor has since sent. It’s ambitious, but doable, this is direction the lab research is headed and will hopefully be funding me in the near future. I add reference or two where needed. And put together a figure for it, trying to summarise the main points of the work package. I send it back, asking a few questions of my own. Back to the lab.
14:57 – I picked the colonies of E. coli from the plates I took out of the incubator this morning, 24 in total, 3 replicates of 8 clones, 10 ml media plus antibiotic each one. In the incubator they go.
15:15 – The PCR’s I sent up earlier are ready. I pour an agarose gel, load the samples, and press go. I’ll know in about an hour if they’ve worked.
15:35 – Cup of tea. It’s drunk fast, before its abandoned. I’m glad I did as my supervisor appears at the door, introducing me to a potential honours student I’ll be supervising in the new year. It’s niceto meet them, I offer to show them around and have a chat, which I do. They seem nice, very interested if the lab, and have lots of questions. Hopefully I’ll see them again in January.
16:15 – The PCR gel is looked at, 2 out of 3 reactions have worked. I’ve had better hit rates. But I’ll take it. The DNA is cut out of the gel, purified, and put in the freezer from tomorrow for further manipulation.
16:39 – I return to the office. A signed safety form greets me on my desk. A few emails have come back, a thank you from the PhD students who’s abstract I looked at. The chemical that was said to be delayed is now mysteriously going to be delivered tomorrow. And a request from an engineer about servicing the anaerobic hood, which I’ll canvas the lab about at tomorrow’s meeting.
17:02 – I have a walk around the labs again, to see if everything and everyone is behaving before I leave it. It is and they are.
17:06 – I turn of my system ready to leave, I make it into the corridor, then am waylaid by a question from a PhD Student about how to send samples off for DNA sequencing. I go back into the office and show them.
17:14 – I make it out the door. The day is done.
….
19:46 – I get an apologetic message off a Post-Doc asking if this incubator is alright to leave in its current state, picture included. I assure them it is. We wish each other a good night
Thank you very much to Michael for sharing this insight to his day.
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