r/labrats

Graduate interns have submitted a completely Claude AI-generated 17,000-word review paper with AI-generated diagrams to the PI. PI ordered me to review it, as I am mentioned as the 3rd author. I just read the abstract; not only is it filled with complex sentences that join 3 irrelevant concepts together, but the definitions of basic terms are completely wrong. Turnitin showed * AI% (they claim it's <20% AI-generated text), so the PI believes the interns wrote it themselves. I privately messaged the interns on how to modify it, and they made changes and sent it back within 30 mins 🙄, clearly using AI again.

I don't want my name associated with this, nor do I want to waste my time on it. How can I tell my PI that I don't want my name on it? I am scared the reviewers might completely blacklist all the authors if they see such garbage. I don't want to ruin my future...

i was wondering if it is ever an issue for PI to have a student leaving their labs and terminating their contracts? is it more of a big deal for phd students than master's students? or is it not that important for them?

Hi!

I wanted to gauge how common this is. I've been working in iPSC differentiation for 4-5 years, 4 different labs and always worn a lab coat (washed every 1-2 weeks) with my gloves pulled over the cuffs in the hood. Additionally, everything is sprayed with 70% EtOH or iso and put in the hood.

I am on a 2 month placement in another country and they do not wear lab coats, just gloves and bare arms in the hood. They do spray briefly before putting things in. And everything is sterilised using a gas burner in the hood, by waving glass pipette tips, media bottle openings etc briefly in the flame.

How common is this? I have never seen a lab like this in my home country (UK) and I'm not saying this other way is wrong, just I was surprised about mixing 70% ethanol and gas burners together. Surely bare arms introduce bacteria to the hood?

Also, does waving the aspirator glass pipette tip briefly in a flame really kill enough cells to dip it in another well with a different cell line? I have always put a plastic pipette tip on the end of my aspirator.

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I just need a minute to vent and cry about something that happened today. I was supposed to go to a conference at the end of October, and I thought I had registered in early September. When I went back today to pay the registration fee, it said I wasn’t registered. I emailed the conference coordinators, and they said the meeting is oversubscribed and there’s nothing they can do.

I checked my browser history and found the link from early September. When I opened it, the page said, “Your registration could not be processed,” and in smaller words it said that the first-name field had been left blank. I guess I never noticed that it didn't go through and now I feel absolutely terrible. This is a really important conference that my PI wanted me to attend.

I waited to pay the fee because it wasn't due until October 17th and my school was going to cover it. My stomach is to my ass right now because I have no idea how I’m going to tell my PI.

Have any of you made a mistake like this? If so, what did you guys do to try and fix it?

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Any ideas on his-tag immunofluorescence staining in HEK293T cells? Both my non-transfected control and experimental cells are positive for His tag. I have tried range of primary antibody dilution (1:500 - 2000) and the signals are still present in my negative control. My staining protocols includes fixing in 2% PFA for 10 minutes, permeabilization in 0.2% triton x-100, blocking in 2% BSA, incubation in primary and secondary antibody for an hour each (with the appropriate wash steps).

Hey everyone! I am desperate for help. I've also sent out these questions to trusted members of my committee and general support peeps, but I'm trying to cover all bases. Please let me know if you have any experience with this! You're so appreciated.

My setup: a bi-cistronic firefly–IRES–Renilla reporter (the RELITE system from Vitale and D'Agostino et al. 2025) used to screen Sec61 translocation inhibitors. We transfect HEK293 cells with X-tremeGENE, dose compounds in 96-well format, and read white opaque plates on a BioTek Synergy H1. We use a homemade luciferase reagent rather than a commercial dual-reporter kit.

We have tried altering many of the parameters, including making the reagents more concentrated, increasing transfection time, completing the assay in the dark, etc. We are trying to narrow down the issue of signal, and I have some questions for you all if I could get some input.

1. Background signal. What level of background do you typically see, and how do you distinguish it from low true signal? Any advice on blank wells, untransfected controls, or reagent-only readings would be helpful.
2. Transfection efficiency. How do you check it, and what do you consider acceptable before trusting the ratio data?
3. Instrument suitability. Based on your experience, would a Synergy H1 be adequate for this assay, or would you recommend a different reader?

I am getting signal in my nontransfected cells that are treated, I am getting signal in my nontransfected cells that don't have treatment in them. I have high background signal in my blanks.

How should I go about testing for transfection? I am so careful about ensuring there is NO DNA in my nontransfected wells, I am so confused by this result. Why is the fricking signal the same? Are they just both not transfected? Did I accidentally get a transfected HEK293 cell line? (Borrowed the cells from another lab that also does dual-luciferase assays.)

My signal also has high variability. My SDV is broad. I had so much deviation its a joke. I literally TAKE PHOTOS of my wells to ensure they are all even at every step. I'm looking at my multichannel tips as I take up liquid. My pipetter is old, so sometimes a random tip doesn't pull, and I will GO BACK WITH A P200 AND INDIVIDUALLY PIPETTE THAT WELL TO ENSURE IT IS EVEN. I fricking refill the tip boxes with tips I know seal best because I want to mitigate error. I've been in labs for almost 10 years. Do I suck? Is it my machine? Is it me?

This assay is VITAL to my dissertation and first author publication(s). PLEASE help if you can. THANK YOU! <3

Hi all., here’s some context : I’m an undergrad doing research with my professor who is also my pi. They tend to yell at people a lot but it’s usually not with ill intent, they just kind of get loud and are very blunt about correcting people. The department has pretty much no money.
In summation what happened was my PI gave me a very strict time constraint to do my work because they were planning on leaving early. They yelled at me about a small issue, which then made me really panicky and because I was also rushing I ended up making a much larger mistake. My PI yelled at me, told me I didn’t know how to work, and that I need to think. I started crying even though I really didn’t want to. For clarification, I was pouring plates which I have done fine for the past semester and a half, this is the only time I have messed them up to the point where they may not be usable. PI yelled at me for wasting the department budget. I am now no longer allowed to pour plates unless my PI or her student employee are directly monitoring me. My PI is the department head, my advisor, and teaches almost every class for my major, they kind of heavily impact my future after undergrad. Leaving isn’t an option, but I don’t know how I can earn back trust after this. I guess I just wanted to se if anyone had advice for how to not cry when PIs yell at you? Sorry for the rant and if there are any mistakes in this

Update: thank you guys for all the comments, it’s nice to know that this isn’t really normal. I checked on my plates this morning and they were okay! About 2/3rds of them were very wonky and ugly, but usable for my purposes so yay! We had some younger kids touring the lab today so my professor grabbed some extras of other plates, and then some of my plates, which I’m not thrilled about since I have very limited time in the lab to do my research including making and pouring media, but also the plates were very ugly and weird so I can’t really be that mad about it to be real. My PI said “no hard feelings about yesterday” and then left before I could answer so I think it was more of a statement than a question. For as difficult as they are to work with, they are also very unintentionally funny sometimes. I’m going to try to adjust my mindset as some of you suggested so I can be more resilient to this type of thing!

Minor clarifications: I am in a really, REALLY small department, and currently there are no other functioning research labs on campus that take students from my major. There used to be, but the professor retired last semester so now it’s just my current PI who I can work for at my college. There is no one else besides my PI, and the 5 or 6 undergrad research students there, no lab techs of anything like that. Our research is also independent, which is part of why I feel so bad about her poor student employee who is also trying to do his own research, having to give up some of our very limited time just to monitor my plate pouring 💀

had 2nd biology lab today, this time we were doing aseptic transfer of liquid via pipettes and test tubes etc, and I fucked up real bad during it, I was unscrewing the cap of the medium with my pinky and as I was holding it in my hand I dropped the cap on the floor, which I’m sure is like an automatic zero, it just seems super difficult to me that I need to like manage manuvering and not using the same fingers etc for things whilst also remembering to do every step in sequence whilst everyone including the lab instructor looks at me.

I could get it down for sure after a couple tries but we have eight bio labs this semester, and I’ve already fucked up two of them, and thats my only chance? first two times ever trying aseptic technique and thats like my only shot? Frustrating…

ps. i can definitely get it down im not saying it’s impossible or anythingbut like by the time I do that I’m afraid the semester will be over and I’ll get a super low grade in my biology labs.

The only question this post has is basically just “is it normal to be really shit at aseptic transfer initially” and then “is it also reasonable to feel frustrated that these first and only attempts are what is graded (not to say thats not how it should be!)”

edit; thought I should mention that i’m not in a dedicated biology undergrad, I’m doing pharmacology.