If you want to culture some T cells you've got to crack a few spines
My scientific career has steadily been leading me towards the world of traditional biology, and today I took a major step along that path: I "sacrificed" a mouse. The little guy never saw it coming. His cage got a ten second burst of 100% CO2 and he was whisked off to slumberland. I then held the even-more-defenseless-than-usual mouse gently at the base of the skull, and gave his tail a sharp tug, severing his spinal cord. And that was the end of that. Andy and I proceeded to excise his spleen, and harvest the sweet, sweet T cells that lay within.
The whole thing was creepy. Aggravating the situation was that, in the next room, someone was blaring Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone". There's one more breezy pop hit lost to visions of grisly animal death.
Comments
As much as I hate my research most days ... I am glad I am not killing mice ... or if I was, it would just be in the computer anyway.
Posted by: A.J. | November 8, 2005 08:12 PM
Yeah, the need for wholesale mouse-slaughter was one of the factors that worked against my all-too-short cognitive science career (one of many).
Posted by: tom | November 9, 2005 07:14 AM
Yeah, one of my friends who worked in a drug research lab spoke of lining several mice up in a row and pop-pop-popping them down the line.
I think I may have thrown up after that.
Posted by: Dan H. | November 9, 2005 02:21 PM