Day 3 at Integrated Pain Solutions! Today was all about applying what we had learned on Tuesday and Wednesday. First, we met up with Adam and started to prep samples onto plates. We put the calibrators onto the plates and then we put the samples onto the plates as well. We used many different tools for this. First, we used normal pipettes and pipette tips of different volumes. We also used a multi-tipped pipet for the enzyme buffer. This pipet was really cool. We got very good at using the pipettes in a manner that didn’t compromise the integrity of the samples.
Next, we let the samples incubate. This incubation was a very important step to allow the required reactions to go to completing inside the urine samples. While the plate with the samples was incubating, we analyzed the results from the initial Indiko scan. The Indiko scan is what I mentioned yesterday (the basic drug screening process). Afterward, we added the prepared enzyme buffer and centrifuged it to precipitate any unwanted particles (things that would ruin the LCMS reading). After running the centerfuge at 4000 rpm for 15 minutes, we took the samples and calibrators from the plate and put them on a different plate. Then, these were put into the LCMS and run for a comprehensive drug test. The mass spec takes some time to run, so while that was happening, we got some Chick-Fil-A.
Later, we also went over the general lab protocol that a toxicology lab would have to follow. All fridge and freezer temperatures need to be documented every day. The pressure of the nitrogen and argon pumps, as well as the percent humidities, need to be documented every day as well.
Lastly, at the end of the day, we did the same lab experience as above with real patient samples instead of proficiency samples (which are samples sent to labs to test whether the lab can accurately determine the concentrations of drugs in a urine sample). Working with real samples was fun. Tomorrow, we will look at the data from our experiments and use that to figure out what drugs the samples contained.
