Making a problem out of nothing

Thanks to the curriculum changes in  my college we have frequent "lab weeks", we basically go over many aspect of the diagnostic tests and concepts in hematological, biochemical, molecular, genetics, etc

The thing is: I hate such weeks. I HATE them. They are a waste of our valuable time. We can spend these weeks attending clinics or being in the wards strengthening our clinical skills.

What makes matter worse is that they are stupidly designed: Let's teach those brats what waiting is (insert the evilest laugh). We have to be present from 8am to 4pm for a total teaching worth of 2 hours. I kid you not . ( mentally punching myself, I can't punch the consultant you, respect and stuff). Our day is a block of waiting.

My dilemma is: how to study lab things! I don’t know how I convinced myself non clinical stuff is to be read the night of the exam only. So here I am feeling guilty for not studying and unable to study not the least enjoy myself.



Many copies of the DNA are synthesized in

PCR

And not to feel guilty in involving you in my ranting, let's talk about PCR; polymerase chain reaction. (we had a session about it, AGAIN). This is a time saving technology where you amplify particular segment of the DNA( in case the mutation you are looking for is in the interon; aka non coding part of the DNA) or RNA( if the mutation is in the axon; the coding part of your DNA) , so you can examine it better for abnormalities. It can be used in many conditions, but its high cost narrow the list. One example is after bone marrow transplant. You want to know if the lymphocytes are of the donor or the patient himself (to check the success of the transplant for example). It also enable the early detection of leukemia and lymphomas.  

In this picture, amplified segments of DNA from both parents are used to confirm they are the  biological parents of their child. You know you get half the DNA from each parents, and this is  the simple idea behind the paternity test. In A no similarities between the dad's DNA and the son, so he is not the father. In B the child belong to this couple.