02-23-2022, 04:38 AM
mattkime wrote:
Is that thing holding scientific data??
Yes. It is.
It's a spreadsheet containing measurements from a flow cytometer (gain, %rCV, and laser delay) for a year. This is usually calculated and posted in the reports from the cytometer after one has run the calibration beads as Levey Jennings plots; if it is out of specifications, it will flag the user. HOWEVER, most users will just go "Huh?" and just keep on going.
I have to take the attitude that "it's not my data" and try to help as much as I can. We cannot look over their shoulders and make them do what they don't want to do, however. As I've been told, the researchers won't stand for it.
Recently we have started moving towards "full spectrum" cytometry: instead of photomultiplier tubes, we now use APDs which are much smaller and thus cover much more of the spectrum than PMTs can. With the increase in spectral capabilities comes an increase in the sheer amount of data: files that used to be a few hundred KB are now in the GB range. We have had to resort to double-sided BR disks to archive the data (data archival is another can of worms). The old ways of doing the experiments need to be updated when you use this system. Recently, we were told that we really should have a "universal" negative. That's fine if you have a mouse model that you can pretty much fix the genetic lines, but not so much when you work with human samples. I'm working on linking their controls that they HAVE run with the daily experiments to the calibration beads (that supposedly HAVE been QC'd, but to what value I don't know. I have an email out to the company to see if I can get any answers.
If I lose the spreadsheet, I won't lose the data. Just all the work that went into it, and the brainstorming that produced it. As some of you know, once you lose the idea of something, you rarely get it back. Since I'm coming back from surgery, my old brain is coming back on-line (to the best that it can) and I'd rather not lose any more than necessary.
Edit: forgot to add as an FYI:
A cytometer is an instrument that uses lasers to excite a fluorescent probe attached to the surface of a cell. These are chosen based on the proteins found on the cell surface (or even interior) and therefore can tell the researcher the type of cell present. So if someone is looking at B-cells or T-cells from a COVID patient, you can label the cell with the appropriate probe, and then count them; a sorter takes it a bit further by sorting the cells of interest; the rest is trashed. The researcher is then presented with a purified/pure sample of the type of cells s/he is wanting, all to be taken to the next step in their project. A lot of the investigation of the immune system has been done using cytometry.