An email from a recent addition to the growing SeqGen family of customers reminded me of a topic near and dear to my heart – third party service providers! I wish I had a nickel for every time I have responded to this question list or similar renditions of it. If you’ve been lucky enough to receive “the list”, I would like to take a moment to address many people’s concerns.
With the onset of Spring this year, I decided that is was time to clean out my closet. I think I literally have clothing in there from high school! You can believe me when I say that was a LONG time ago.
In the same way – it may be time to do some Spring-cleaning in your laboratory. Unlike my closet, which can survive many decades of grossly outdated fashion, your sequencer or PCR machine requires a good tune-up every year. Do the pictures above look all too familiar?
My teenaged son has accused me of being OCD because we have to vacuum the entire house each week and remove our shoes before entering the house. The jury is still out on my mental health, but I do know the life of my carpet is being prolonged!
You may also be able to prolong the life of your pump and lower block with simple “housekeeping” techniques. Both parts can leave a huge dent in your budget if you have to replace them. Fortunately, with a little time and care, both can last for years.
We sure hope your pump does not resemble this one!
During the month of June, SeqGen was hired to send an engineer to Uganda. While we are an international company, this is our first experience dispatching onto the African continent. Aaron checked and rechecked what he planned to bring with him, knowing that he would have less than a week to complete the tasks at hand and no time to have additional parts shipped to him.
He had to wait 10 days for the yellow fever vaccine to become effective and also needed to obtain the appropriate visa. “Why?” you may ask, were we going to Uganda? Interestingly enough, we were hired to repair four ABI Prism 377 DNA Sequencers. While at first glance this seems like a daunting task, it is all in a day’s work for one of SeqGen’s engineers.
This past school year my son’s high school robotics team made it to the divisional finals of the World Robotics Championship in St. Louis, Missouri. Robots from all over the world competed and were designed to stack plastic tote bins and trashcans in the fastest, most efficient way possible. The thrill of victory was sweet, yet the agony of defeat was felt when a robot arm fell off, or the robot malfunctioned causing the match to be lost.
I hate moving! That being said, I have made three major cross-state or cross- country moves in the last 10 years. All that planning, packing, loading, unloading, and then unpacking just wears a person out.
As difficult as it is to move a household, moving a lab presents an entirely different set of challenges. Workflow must be halted and many times, revenue streams have to be put on hold until the machines are back up and running. This means the move must be completed as expediently as possible, with little room for error.
For Want of a Nail
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
Beyond a mild appreciation for the historical value of the 14th century proverb, how does the above text relate to life in the molecular biology lab? An interesting case study follows that may shed some light on the subject.
A couple of weeks ago, SeqGen was hired to perform the annual preventative maintenance on a 3130 Genetic Analyzer. The engineer completed the required service, but unfortunately discovered that the recently relocated machine had a broken right door sensor, that, at the time, was not affecting the operation of the instrument. The end user was alerted to the potential problem, the issue was notated on the report, and the engineer closed out the job.
When Your Machine Takes a Vacation
After three years it is finally time for a vacation! Yes – the teen and I are headed for some relaxation on the beach before all the pandemonium begins in the fall.
Judging from the number of “Out of Office” replies we are receiving these days, it seems that many of you are enjoying some well-deserved time off too.
If this is the case, don’t forget to also give your sequencer, PCR, or qPCR machine the proper vacation it needs.
While on vacation last week, I had the opportunity to rent a 2015 Ford Expedition, which, believe it or not, reminded me of a recent service visit we performed! Now I am most definitely not a car person and personally drive an older hybrid, so I have to say I was most impressed by all the new features this SUV offered.
There was one feature however that I could have done without – the smart key! The key had a top speed programmed into it, would constantly alarm when the vehicle’s speed approached that user defined limit, and would actually stop the car from accelerating past that set point. Thankfully we were given two keys and I had to make sure NOT to use the “smart” key.
I recently had the unpleasant experience of purchasing a used, higher mileage, older vehicle for my teen son. Everything has functioned flawlessly on the car, but it did need a routine oil change. I, of course, am a firm believer in third party service providers, so I sent my son to a local mechanic’s shop. Unfortunately, my bargain $19.95 oil change turned into a $250 routine maintenance visit! Apparently the previous owner had not done the proper preventative maintenance and everything needed flushing or replacing, including all the air filters.
