Biotech researchers: How do I learn proper labeling techniques?

1 comment

in Biology

The Desert Bird asked:


I almost ruin my whole Master’s degree, because of poor labeling of my gDNA, Plasmids and PCR products. But luckily it all worked out OK. Now, working on another project as a RA, I have samples going back to 2005 and can’t make out head or tail what they are? I need to re-sequence some of them, but can’t find the correct blooming samples, because of poor lables and storing. What must I do?? How do I learn to properly lable and store sample? I tend to be lazy with labeling and now it came back to bite me in the ass. I’m overall good with research, but THIS is a @#$^ disaster.. and will get me in deep trouble with my supervisor.

Problem is that I have don’t duplicates and some of them failed and other worked. Most of my samples can be identified correctly, but some of the older samples…oi.oi.oi..

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{ 1 comment }

Sophia J

I think it’s a lesson we all learn in grad school. To be a good scientist you must be able to keep neat and organized records, including labeling all samples.

How do you learn it? Practice. I also double label everything. For example, I might have a digit system, like RD-22d, but I will also use location of label or color to duplicate my system. Then, I keep meticulous records of what my codes mean. This way I don’t have to fill my sample container up with exact site, date, and descriptive information.

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