We're going to have to prove that the cells were actually infected as planned, so we have put some of the infected cells and essentially mummified them so we can see how much PLAP protein they are producing. We had to wash them with PBS, then soak them in 4% PFA (paraformaldehyde) and PBS, then keep wash and leave them in PBS so they don't dry out. This process 1) gets rid of everything that aren't living cells and 2) preserves the cells in whatever state they were in. We have yet to stain them and measure the PLAP.

In other news, I watched a staining of those kidney and heart tissues I saw on Saturday. Side note: The tissues were from rats. Anyway, the process was very time-consuming and precise. There was much soaking in many  colorful fluids for differing and specific amounts of time. Most of which smelled terrible and would hurt your eyes if you looked at it too long. Like Xylene. Xylene sucks. But the end result was this:

Today we started a process that will take the exosomes from the media, and then separate the DNA, RNA, and protein from inside the cells. I wasn't there for the media bit, but I was there for the separating the cells from their innards bit. So we took the cells that produced the media we harvested and resuspended them in a lysis buffer which turned them into gross semi-opaque bubble-goo. We put the mess into these tubes that were a part of a kit to purify RNA and DNA and put them in a centrifuge. The larger DNA and protein would stay above the filter whil the RNA and other cell guts would slip through to the bottom. Then I had to leave, but Mari is sending me the protocol so I could sum this up better.