Life of a Lab Rat

I talked about an embryonic stem cell line (mouse, if you are wondering) last week. This particular line has a gene trap in one allele of Protein de Jour. (Aside: a piece of DNA that contains a splice acceptor site is introduced into cells. It randomly inserts into the genome, hopefully causing interruptions in useful genes that subsequently can be used to make gene knockdowns/outs, etc.)

As I mentioned, we do not think that the trap is in quite the right place, but have gone ahead and ordered the more likely-looking candidate. Which means a whole heap of paperwork.

There is a friendly and efficient lady at the Sanger who is doing her best to make the process as painless as possible. So I sent her the two signed copies of the Materials Transfer Agreement and a copy of our AQIS permit, and it occurred to me that I should put in a brief covering letter. Bringing to mind a rather patronizing email that was sent to the entire department back in May I looked on the Usyd website for headed letter templates and whatnot (this being the first time since arriving that I have had to send an actual, honest-to-goodness printed on paper physical letter).

And there is a whole industry devoted to this stuff. There are compliment slips and business cards and various letter templates (colour and black & white) and a style guide (and Powerpoint templates for pity's sake) and stern warnings to adhere to the corporate image of the University of Sydney because we have to be professional and corporate and pretend we're an actual company devoid of all imagination and original thought rather than trying to be a vibrant, research-driven university community.

I see the desirability of projecting a professional image and having consistent themes but . . . it all reminds me of a two-year gig I had at a small but very 'corporate image'-driven company in Cambridge, where over half the staff attended 'management' meetings and every good idea the CSO and myself had were stomped on by the gormless CEO and his cronies. (Yes, Virginia; that is why I only lasted two years).

I do wonder if correspondents at other research institutes might read my letters and think,

"Gosh, what a professional-looking letter. They must do good research," or if it is not something more along the lines of,

"Bloody hell, what do they pay administrators these days?"

So, yeah, a little whinge. To be honest, the letterhead I printed out looked rather neat once I had stamped some individuality on it (my name, okay?), but the effect was rather spoiled by our colour printer, which tends to fade towards the left hand side of the page, resulting in a fetchingly yellow-toned University crest. Can't win them all, I guess.

Oh, and that company in Cambridge? Bought out by Whatman International just after I left (leaving all our stock options worthless), most of the staff were made redundant and as far as I know all that is left are two dispirited monkeys working out of a shed in Ely.