This post is the final part of the "Novice Researchers' Programme"-self named by yours truly! Hahaha.
Less than 20% of the class had taken Research Project 2.
What are the differences between Research Project 1 and Research Project 2?
RP 2 is basically the continuation from RP 1. If there is more things that you want to discover further from RP1, you can do it in RP2.
As for me, I used the same methods used in RP1, only that there are now 3 different antibiotics to be tested together with the plant extract.
I registered for my Research Project 2 during my final semester of my final year in KOP (that's Kulliyyah of Pharmacy for you non-IIU-ans out there).
We only took 2 core courses for that particular semester. 6 credit hours each. SIX! The first 7 weeks were the Industrial Pharmacy, whereby we had to intern at the 'drug factory' (will be further explained in upcoming post-not sure when though ;P) from 8.30 am till 5.30 pm. While the next 7 weeks were spent doing Hospital Attachment in Pekan (of which will be explained as well someday) from 8 am till 5 pm.
Now, how on Earth am I going to sneak into the lab to do my lab works?
The process
You must meet your lecturer, keep in touch with her throughout the semester, until you had finally done with your research lab works, submit a report and graduate.
You should not meet your lecturer only after the 14 weeks are over (of which you did not even contacted her once) and nonchalantly tell her "I want to continue this research project but I just realized that the stuff that I'm going to use had finished so can you please order it for me and make sure it arrived in 1 week time?"
Try doing that, if you want to be kicked out from the lecturer's room.
The challenges (you can skip this part if you want to)
As for me, the vancomycin that I wanted to use for my research project had finished, but I did inform her within that 14 weeks of the Industrial and Hospital attachment. I think I had informed her a little bit late (my fault) so I could not use vancomycin.
Being a good researcher means that you have to have the willingness to explore every possibilities and not just sticking to that one purpose that you want to achieve with that one way that you want to use to achieve that purpose.
A good cook could cook using anything available in her kitchen and make a splendid dish.
The inventor of the post-it notes didn't intend to invent the post-it notes. He discovered it when he ran out of glue, or something. I read it somewhere on brainpickings.
Thus, a good researcher must make do with whatever there is available in the laboratory.
In this case, it's three different types of antibiotics.
Amoxicillin
Ciprofloxacin
Erythromycin
Yup, instead of vancomycin, I decided to use these 3 antibiotics (after suggestion from Dr A, of course).
MRSA is already resistant to these 3 antibiotics (in most cases) so in a way, I know that these 3 drugs wouldn't have much effects onto the MRSA and hence, I couldn't really achieve the desired outcome. T___T
But, berpantang ajal sebelum maut, at least I must try to test these drugs in combination with my plant to see the effects against MRSA (synergistic/antagonistic/additive).
Soon after my comrades and I had finished our last paper, our FINAL, LAST paper that marks the end of our degree study, I went to Dr A's lab and gathered all the apparatus, materials and equipments needed for my lab works.
The next day, I autoclaved all those stuffs using the autoclave machine, set at the temperature of 121 degrees celsius to effectively kill all viable microorganism or spores residing in my apparatus. Second day, all right.
I must inoculate my MRSA into the Nutrient Broth. I inoculated it and incubate the broth in the incubator set at 37 degrees celsius for 8 hours.
The next day, I checked the nutrient broth. If it's cloudy, then there's a presence of bacterial growth, if it's not, then it's dead and I'm gonna have to repeat it again thus delaying the progression of my labworks. T___T
I was elated to see that the MRSA grew well in the broth!
On my 3rd day, it was Saturday. I went to the laboratory, spent my day there from 8 am till almost 6 pm ALONE, doing the broth microdilution method and checkerboard assay method.
I then put the microtitre plates into the incubator for 8 hours.
The next day, I returned to the lab to look at the results.
Well, it didn't look promising.
Dr A said that I should but MTT mixture into it. If there's bacterial growth, it will turn from yellow to purple.
So at night, at around 8 pm, my friend and I, went to the laboratory to complete our labworks. And I did the MTT thing there.
Everything done. I procrastinated in writing my RP report but successfully completing it and submitting it on time. That's me. I would procrastinate, but I would never hand in my assignments later than the submission date. I always submit my assignments/reports ON TIME. That's the number one rule of procrastination. Procrastinate all you like, but make sure you could finish it on time.
Whoa, I should make a Procrastinators' Guide Book.
It seems like Dr A was satisfied with the 1st draft of my RP report. I just had to make minor changes to it. And then, I submitted the final report and yaay...I've unofficially graduated!
The Fruit of Success
I got a B PLUS... HAHAHAHA apa ni semakin menurun but heyy B plus is okay, considering that I had committed ahemm...something that breached the ethics of research T__T.
Final Thoughts
1. Really, KOP should make a guideline/a class to explain about this whole research thing. For example, the do's and don'ts, the safety procedures. Well, there was a one hour briefing for RP 1 but still, as mere human beings, we tend to forget easily and thus need to be constantly reminded don't we? :P
2. KOP should create special cards for us RP students to gain access to the laboratories.
3. There should be a guideline for lecturers/supervisors as well, on what kind of procedures/research tasks that should be delegated to the students. We are undergraduate pharmacy students, and this is just an elective subject, not a final year project. Some of my friends had to perform lab works that rival the works of a Masters/Ph.D students. Some had it relatively easier than others. Okay, enough said.
So, this basically concludes the end of the three parts of IIUM Pharmacy 101 series: "Novice Researchers' Programme". Thank you for reading. :)
I registered for my Research Project 2 during my final semester of my final year in KOP (that's Kulliyyah of Pharmacy for you non-IIU-ans out there).
We only took 2 core courses for that particular semester. 6 credit hours each. SIX! The first 7 weeks were the Industrial Pharmacy, whereby we had to intern at the 'drug factory' (will be further explained in upcoming post-not sure when though ;P) from 8.30 am till 5.30 pm. While the next 7 weeks were spent doing Hospital Attachment in Pekan (of which will be explained as well someday) from 8 am till 5 pm.
Now, how on Earth am I going to sneak into the lab to do my lab works?
The process
You must meet your lecturer, keep in touch with her throughout the semester, until you had finally done with your research lab works, submit a report and graduate.
You should not meet your lecturer only after the 14 weeks are over (of which you did not even contacted her once) and nonchalantly tell her "I want to continue this research project but I just realized that the stuff that I'm going to use had finished so can you please order it for me and make sure it arrived in 1 week time?"
Try doing that, if you want to be kicked out from the lecturer's room.
The challenges (you can skip this part if you want to)
As for me, the vancomycin that I wanted to use for my research project had finished, but I did inform her within that 14 weeks of the Industrial and Hospital attachment. I think I had informed her a little bit late (my fault) so I could not use vancomycin.
Being a good researcher means that you have to have the willingness to explore every possibilities and not just sticking to that one purpose that you want to achieve with that one way that you want to use to achieve that purpose.
A good cook could cook using anything available in her kitchen and make a splendid dish.
The inventor of the post-it notes didn't intend to invent the post-it notes. He discovered it when he ran out of glue, or something. I read it somewhere on brainpickings.
Thus, a good researcher must make do with whatever there is available in the laboratory.
In this case, it's three different types of antibiotics.
Amoxicillin
Ciprofloxacin
Erythromycin
Yup, instead of vancomycin, I decided to use these 3 antibiotics (after suggestion from Dr A, of course).
MRSA is already resistant to these 3 antibiotics (in most cases) so in a way, I know that these 3 drugs wouldn't have much effects onto the MRSA and hence, I couldn't really achieve the desired outcome. T___T
But, berpantang ajal sebelum maut, at least I must try to test these drugs in combination with my plant to see the effects against MRSA (synergistic/antagonistic/additive).
Soon after my comrades and I had finished our last paper, our FINAL, LAST paper that marks the end of our degree study, I went to Dr A's lab and gathered all the apparatus, materials and equipments needed for my lab works.
My working area, the laminar flow cabinet
The next day, I autoclaved all those stuffs using the autoclave machine, set at the temperature of 121 degrees celsius to effectively kill all viable microorganism or spores residing in my apparatus. Second day, all right.
I must inoculate my MRSA into the Nutrient Broth. I inoculated it and incubate the broth in the incubator set at 37 degrees celsius for 8 hours.
The next day, I checked the nutrient broth. If it's cloudy, then there's a presence of bacterial growth, if it's not, then it's dead and I'm gonna have to repeat it again thus delaying the progression of my labworks. T___T
I was elated to see that the MRSA grew well in the broth!
The far right bottle contains the control broth, hence the clarity of the solution.
On my 3rd day, it was Saturday. I went to the laboratory, spent my day there from 8 am till almost 6 pm ALONE, doing the broth microdilution method and checkerboard assay method.
I then put the microtitre plates into the incubator for 8 hours.
The next day, I returned to the lab to look at the results.
Well, it didn't look promising.
Dr A said that I should but MTT mixture into it. If there's bacterial growth, it will turn from yellow to purple.
So at night, at around 8 pm, my friend and I, went to the laboratory to complete our labworks. And I did the MTT thing there.
Everything done. I procrastinated in writing my RP report but successfully completing it and submitting it on time. That's me. I would procrastinate, but I would never hand in my assignments later than the submission date. I always submit my assignments/reports ON TIME. That's the number one rule of procrastination. Procrastinate all you like, but make sure you could finish it on time.
Whoa, I should make a Procrastinators' Guide Book.
It seems like Dr A was satisfied with the 1st draft of my RP report. I just had to make minor changes to it. And then, I submitted the final report and yaay...I've unofficially graduated!
The Fruit of Success
I got a B PLUS... HAHAHAHA apa ni semakin menurun but heyy B plus is okay, considering that I had committed ahemm...something that breached the ethics of research T__T.
Final Thoughts
1. Really, KOP should make a guideline/a class to explain about this whole research thing. For example, the do's and don'ts, the safety procedures. Well, there was a one hour briefing for RP 1 but still, as mere human beings, we tend to forget easily and thus need to be constantly reminded don't we? :P
2. KOP should create special cards for us RP students to gain access to the laboratories.
3. There should be a guideline for lecturers/supervisors as well, on what kind of procedures/research tasks that should be delegated to the students. We are undergraduate pharmacy students, and this is just an elective subject, not a final year project. Some of my friends had to perform lab works that rival the works of a Masters/Ph.D students. Some had it relatively easier than others. Okay, enough said.
So, this basically concludes the end of the three parts of IIUM Pharmacy 101 series: "Novice Researchers' Programme". Thank you for reading. :)
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