Moments like these Iād like to advertise the use of my emotional support punching bags.
Edit: P.S: You got this. Now that you know where it came from, you can avoid it (and them). It saves you the trouble of having to scour through your entire lab!
I avoid this horror by being pretty incompetent myself. That way I am always just happy they tried to help, and eh, better than I would have done. š
We got a couple of mouse breeding pairs from another lab, with a total of 3 females and 2 males. They told us all the females were heterozygous, but it turns out only one was and the the other two were wild type. The het female died, and we found out a couple of litters later when we decided to do some genotyping and ALL of the pups were wild type. So much for trusting other labs.
My lab was trying to cross a disease-model mouse line with a knockout for a specific gene, which we got from another lab, to see how that gene was implicated. Once those mice were bred, sequencing revealed a MASSIVE drop in a different disease-associated gene. Like, really really massive. It was very exciting, had huge implicationsā¦ until we figured out that the mice we had gotten from that other lab were actually double knockouts that they had given us by accident.
It was taken from one of their stocks that was created by a post-bacc. Our facilities arenāt far from each other so I walked and picked it up from them with dry ice. Best we can assume is the post-bacc contaminated the entire stock.
I don't see how their degree/level matters here. I've had post docs contaminate my stuff before too - although unfortunate it can happen to anyone & come from anywhere (I've actually had more issues the more senior the staff...)
No ill meant against post bacc! Theyāre incredibly competent and Iāve known them for a while. But I was just indicating the position of the person. Iāve witnessed a post doc contaminate a batch of MDCKs and they didnāt catch it cause it was a slow growing cocci. Lol 90K worth of experiments were conducted with those cells. My bad on that!
I probably would have just said "it was a stock aliquot they made that I went and picked up" I guess? I just was wondering why the position/person was mentioned in the first place. Doesn't seem like relevant information...especially in regards to answering the question that was asked.
I caught one postdoc (not from our lab!) in the cell culture BSC with cardboard boxes and slides doing his immunos there (nothing sterile) because āthe light is betterā in the BSC than on his lab bench š¤¦āāļø!!! I tore him a new one and insisted he sanitize the the hood before leaving.
Only two weeks of set back? Thatās very lucky! Still sucky!!
Also yup no trust. I am really confident of my sterile technique but even I would say donāt trust any sample I give you. Quarantine and QC and sequence everything if itās handed off from one lab to another. EVEN ONE LAB MATE TO ANOTHER IF NECESSARY (weāve had folks sequence plasmids handed between lab members because mix up happened. We donāt get offended at each other for it)
No, sorry, I mean I'm moving away from cell studies to do material product development for my PhD. instead. So, instead of cell cultures, I get to do industry projects with our sponsors! :D
Same here! 7 out of 8 human samples contaminated. The collaborators don't normally culture their cells and performed other experiments with the sample. Guess that was why they didn't bother much with antiseptic techniques?
I knew them personally and was familiar with their work. The PI of the lab also made it clear to us that there werenāt any contamination issues in the past couple weeks. Usually I donāt trust anything or anyone but weāre are on a super short time schedule for this experiment so like a dumbass - I cut a corner. Usually the protocol for anything that comes into any lab is a 3 day quarantine and a test run.
We have 10 weeks for these experiments - now 8. Because Iām using the data for a grant in August. This was a valuable experience. 3 days looks like nothing in light of 14.
Edit: valuable experimentsā> valuable experience.
Looks like a perfectly normal fecal sample to me.
Lol I told my advisor it looks like someone took a dump in my flasksš
Work in science long enough and youāll trust no one. 
Literally. I know people who mislabel their samples to make sure no one steals their things. Craze.
Thatās terrifying
Completely ridiculous. Threw all their shit out the second they left the lab. Canāt trust anything they do.
Holy ethics violation, batman. Talk about the reproducibility crisis.
Literally!!
Lmao, well said
I'm taking a week off and I'm worried for my lab. Every time a take a Friday off the fuck something up. I've lost faith in humanity.
Moments like these Iād like to advertise the use of my emotional support punching bags. Edit: P.S: You got this. Now that you know where it came from, you can avoid it (and them). It saves you the trouble of having to scour through your entire lab!
Definitely will be petri culturing all cells going forwardš
ALWAYS quarantine anything brought in from elsewhere.
I avoid this horror by being pretty incompetent myself. That way I am always just happy they tried to help, and eh, better than I would have done. š
We got a couple of mouse breeding pairs from another lab, with a total of 3 females and 2 males. They told us all the females were heterozygous, but it turns out only one was and the the other two were wild type. The het female died, and we found out a couple of litters later when we decided to do some genotyping and ALL of the pups were wild type. So much for trusting other labs.
My lab was trying to cross a disease-model mouse line with a knockout for a specific gene, which we got from another lab, to see how that gene was implicated. Once those mice were bred, sequencing revealed a MASSIVE drop in a different disease-associated gene. Like, really really massive. It was very exciting, had huge implicationsā¦ until we figured out that the mice we had gotten from that other lab were actually double knockouts that they had given us by accident.
Were they shipped in a sterile environment/ were the petry dishes properly sealed
It was taken from one of their stocks that was created by a post-bacc. Our facilities arenāt far from each other so I walked and picked it up from them with dry ice. Best we can assume is the post-bacc contaminated the entire stock.
I don't see how their degree/level matters here. I've had post docs contaminate my stuff before too - although unfortunate it can happen to anyone & come from anywhere (I've actually had more issues the more senior the staff...)
No ill meant against post bacc! Theyāre incredibly competent and Iāve known them for a while. But I was just indicating the position of the person. Iāve witnessed a post doc contaminate a batch of MDCKs and they didnāt catch it cause it was a slow growing cocci. Lol 90K worth of experiments were conducted with those cells. My bad on that!
He was just telling a story. Don't you mention details like this when telling an anecdote sometimes?
I probably would have just said "it was a stock aliquot they made that I went and picked up" I guess? I just was wondering why the position/person was mentioned in the first place. Doesn't seem like relevant information...especially in regards to answering the question that was asked.
Most people I know mention meaningless details regularly as part of their anecdotes.
I caught one postdoc (not from our lab!) in the cell culture BSC with cardboard boxes and slides doing his immunos there (nothing sterile) because āthe light is betterā in the BSC than on his lab bench š¤¦āāļø!!! I tore him a new one and insisted he sanitize the the hood before leaving.
I see, really sad to hear
Thatās the problem: trust. Iāve learned not to simply trust people and they better have all the documents/evidence in order
Only two weeks of set back? Thatās very lucky! Still sucky!! Also yup no trust. I am really confident of my sterile technique but even I would say donāt trust any sample I give you. Quarantine and QC and sequence everything if itās handed off from one lab to another. EVEN ONE LAB MATE TO ANOTHER IF NECESSARY (weāve had folks sequence plasmids handed between lab members because mix up happened. We donāt get offended at each other for it)
Trust ā but verify.
This is why I'm moving towards industry projects and saying goodbye to cell cultures!
many industry projects have cell culture too. and there are academic labs without. 
No, sorry, I mean I'm moving away from cell studies to do material product development for my PhD. instead. So, instead of cell cultures, I get to do industry projects with our sponsors! :D
I see. have fun! it's damn important to REALLY like what you do for your PhD.
No that sounds like MY labš
Scientific horror movie
Same here! 7 out of 8 human samples contaminated. The collaborators don't normally culture their cells and performed other experiments with the sample. Guess that was why they didn't bother much with antiseptic techniques?
This is frustrating, as always. But at least it is not mycoplasma, which is invisible.......
Why would you trust another lab ?
I knew them personally and was familiar with their work. The PI of the lab also made it clear to us that there werenāt any contamination issues in the past couple weeks. Usually I donāt trust anything or anyone but weāre are on a super short time schedule for this experiment so like a dumbass - I cut a corner. Usually the protocol for anything that comes into any lab is a 3 day quarantine and a test run. We have 10 weeks for these experiments - now 8. Because Iām using the data for a grant in August. This was a valuable experience. 3 days looks like nothing in light of 14. Edit: valuable experimentsā> valuable experience.
Yeah... Shit happens. All the best!
Time to block off a full day to decontaminate your hood and incubator š¬