Hi all! So how has your week been at your attachment sites?
As some of you may know, I'm attached to a research lab in school. Currently, I'm researching on traditonal chinese medicine for both my major project and the research competition organised by NUS.
As for my SIP, I have just started it on friday and my scope is on plant tissue culture. In plant tissue culture, plants are actually grown in agar medium. (can you believe that?! I was quite amazed when i first saw it)
So what I basically did on friday was subculturing of plants that have overgrown into new agar media. This was done by cutting away the leaves and leaving the trimmed part of the stem and roots behind to be immersed into the agar.
The container on the right shows the subcultured plant tissue into the agar. The agar contains activated charcoal that helps to absorb waste, which explains why the agar is black
Okay, enough of what I've been doing. From what I have observed so far, the lab is managed by a rather tight security system. From the entry into the main lab to the other specialized labs (other rooms within a lab such as the chemistry lab, plant tissue culture lab, TCM research lab), a security card is needed to gain access to these various labs. It works by tapping the card against this scanner that would verify if access is allowed into a particular lab. Depending on the card that is being used, it will only allow access to certain labs. This is practiced to minimize unnecessary movement by students into labs which are not intended for their use.
Another feature of quality control is traceability. This is practiced through recording the time and date of use of equipment (such as centrifuges) as well as the name of the person using the equipment into a log book. This is done so that if any fault arises in the machine, we'll be able to trace back and find out the identity of the person who was accountible for the error.
Also, to ensure the quality of reagents that are used in the lab, once a new reagent bottle is opened, the date of use should be recorded on the bottle or pack so that we'll be able to determine the freshness of the reagent.
Since I'm using herbs for my MP and the research competition, the consistency of these herbs have to be ensured by performing HPLC or high performance liquid chromatography. I'm still unsure of how the whole HPLC machine works, but all I know is that the machine operates by separating the components of the herb and generating a chromatogram with peaks. These peaks indicate active compounds in the herb and by analyzing the profile of the chromatogram between 2 or more batches of herbs, we'll be able to know the consistency of quality between these batches. So if the profile appears to be similar, the herbs can be used. However, if the profiles appear different, then further analysis has to be done to find out why the quality of herbs differ. This could be due to the inconsistent extraction process or some other reasons.
As some of you may know, I'm attached to a research lab in school. Currently, I'm researching on traditonal chinese medicine for both my major project and the research competition organised by NUS.
As for my SIP, I have just started it on friday and my scope is on plant tissue culture. In plant tissue culture, plants are actually grown in agar medium. (can you believe that?! I was quite amazed when i first saw it)
So what I basically did on friday was subculturing of plants that have overgrown into new agar media. This was done by cutting away the leaves and leaving the trimmed part of the stem and roots behind to be immersed into the agar. 
The container on the right shows the subcultured plant tissue into the agar. The agar contains activated charcoal that helps to absorb waste, which explains why the agar is black
Okay, enough of what I've been doing. From what I have observed so far, the lab is managed by a rather tight security system. From the entry into the main lab to the other specialized labs (other rooms within a lab such as the chemistry lab, plant tissue culture lab, TCM research lab), a security card is needed to gain access to these various labs. It works by tapping the card against this scanner that would verify if access is allowed into a particular lab. Depending on the card that is being used, it will only allow access to certain labs. This is practiced to minimize unnecessary movement by students into labs which are not intended for their use.
Another feature of quality control is traceability. This is practiced through recording the time and date of use of equipment (such as centrifuges) as well as the name of the person using the equipment into a log book. This is done so that if any fault arises in the machine, we'll be able to trace back and find out the identity of the person who was accountible for the error.
Also, to ensure the quality of reagents that are used in the lab, once a new reagent bottle is opened, the date of use should be recorded on the bottle or pack so that we'll be able to determine the freshness of the reagent.
Since I'm using herbs for my MP and the research competition, the consistency of these herbs have to be ensured by performing HPLC or high performance liquid chromatography. I'm still unsure of how the whole HPLC machine works, but all I know is that the machine operates by separating the components of the herb and generating a chromatogram with peaks. These peaks indicate active compounds in the herb and by analyzing the profile of the chromatogram between 2 or more batches of herbs, we'll be able to know the consistency of quality between these batches. So if the profile appears to be similar, the herbs can be used. However, if the profiles appear different, then further analysis has to be done to find out why the quality of herbs differ. This could be due to the inconsistent extraction process or some other reasons.
posted by Samantha at
5:29 PM
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