When Your Machine Takes a Vacation

Ever had one of those days? After sitting at your desk for 12 hours, you still cannot seem to clear out the day’s “To Do” list. This entire week was one of “those” days for me. I’ve even received three friend requests, allegedly from me, to friend myself! I just want to say that we at SeqGen consider ALL of you our friends, but please do NOT accept any “friend” requests from SeqGen or me personally. Somehow one of your emails has been hacked and those cyber crooks are using SeqGen’s and my name maliciously. Rest assured that the hosting service has received the appropriate “hate” mail from us. Please check the email sender very carefully and never click on any suspicious links – even from SeqGen!

One of the most common complaints we hear from our customers is they are seeing less than optimal results in their sequencing data. After making sure your machine is working properly, we often come to the conclusion that the issue is related to the capillary array.

Most of the time, the problem is simply a dirty capillary array. Over time, dried and degraded polymer will accumulate on the inner walls of your capillary array. This can adversely affect the resolution during sample runs and cause your results to suffer. Some common symptoms of a failing array are:

• Loss of resolution
• Broadening or “fat” peaks
• Delayed DNA peaks
• Blue or yellow bands in some, but not all of the capillaries
• One or two capillaries showing no peaks at all

On a hot steamy June day in The-Middle-of-Nowhereville, Wisconsin, a SeqGen field service engineer was on his way to a routine preventative maintenance service call. As he hums along with the radio, suddenly he hears the sickening flop, flop, flop, of a flat tire. No problem! This is a field service engineer right? Well it would not have been a problem had there been a spare tire in the trunk of the rental car! Ok – call for roadside assistance. Oh no – no cell signal! To make a long story short – after a 30-minute hike along a deserted, hot, asphalt highway, he finally gets a cell signal, calls for roadside assistance and is soon back on his way.

Two weeks ago, during an unusually warm spell on the east coast, I received a text message from a friend who was suffering through the misfortune of a failed air conditioner. I was of course more than sympathetic as I sat in my nice cool home and insisted that she move her family into my guest bedroom. She politely declined and suffered through the calamity until she could get the unit replaced. Unfortunately she did not have a service contract and had to fork over a hefty chunk of her hard earned savings to replace the heat pump.

If there is a 50-50 chance that something can go wrong, then 9 times out of ten it will.– PAUL HARVEY, AMERican Journalist

Do you remember what you were doing on December 31, 1999? If you bought into the conspiracy theory drama, you were stockpiling food and water stores, emptying your banks accounts to store under a remote mattress, as well as confirming that your storage closets were completely filled with extra batteries, candles, backpacks, firearms, and fuel reserves. We all waited with apocalyptic expectation as the countdown to midnight began. And then… nothing happened!

Last week was such an exciting week in Dallas at Promega’s 26th International Symposium on Human Identification.  Exhibitors and participants alike were treated to a week packed full of exciting presentations and announcements.  Promega is the ultimate host! 

Have you ever had one of those annoying garden hoses that leaks no matter what you seem to do?  You change that little washer a zillion times but water is still erupting from one end or the other!  Similarly, this seems to be the topic of the month at SeqGen for our qPCR and thermal cycler customers.  Several calls and emails have come in detailing customer frustration over sample evaporation around the edges of their plates or lids cracking on the 9700 thermal cycler.

How can something so small, cause so many problems? The other day Charles, one of our field service engineers, shared some observations that he frequently makes in many of the labs he visits.  Here is an excerpt from his email that you may find interesting:

“Recently, I realized our customers were having pump system issues on the 3130/3730 because of over-twisting the capillary array knob. The knob can even break the capillary if it is adjusted improperly.”

Here are Charles’ suggestions for pump system maintenance:

Ok, so I know it’s not Spring just yet. I was quickly reminded of this fact this morning as my teeth were chattering while I brushed the snow off my car. But, warm weather is just around the corner and with it are many spring-cleaning projects.

The weather may still be cold, but now is a great time to do some cleaning around the lab. Your sequencer requires a good tune-up every year to make sure it is working properly. So to help guide you through this cleanup, we’ve listed some of the most common problems you may run into.