Re: Spending too much time on the flow - Ode to a lymphocyte

Beverly,
 
It's great to see someone else passionate about their work!
You may have opened a Pandora's box, though......
 
When I started immunology years ago (circa 1981) I was similarly
enamoured with these mysterious lymphocytes and their functions,
prompting the following song:
 
ODE TO A LYMPHOCYTE (to the tune of "if I were a carpenter")
 
If I were a plant lectin
And you a receptor
Would you undergo blastogenesis
Would you release my factor?
 
If I were to be polyclonal
Would you HLA restrict me?
Answer me 'yes I would'
I'll promise not to mix it
 
CHORUS
Save my love from loneliness
Save my love from sorrow
I've given you DNA synthesis
Tritiated thymidine to follow
 
And if we produced cytokines 
That were antigen-specific
We'd be the envy of the hybrid lines
In assays that were cell free.
 
—------------------------
 
I sang it once at a immunology society dinner, but the song was
otherwise forgotten, until your email reminded me.... 
Maybe our humble offerings will stimulate the creative juices and lead
to the outpouring of great literature, that Paul can bring out on a
special CD?
Hmmm....probably not.
 
 
--
Stanley Ress
Associate Professor of Medicine
Head: Division of Clinical Immunology
Department of Medicine
H47 Old Main Building-room 26
Groote Schuur Hospital and UCT
Observatory 7925
Cape Town
South Africa
TEL:INTERN. + 2721-4066201 or 4066197
FAX:   "    + 2721-4486815
Cell: 0833115482 
email: stan.ress@uct.ac.za 


>>> Beverly Barton <bartonbe@umdnj.edu> 25/06/2008 14:44 >>>
 You know you've been spending too much time on the flow when:

1) you dream all night about a new instrument that doesn't exist
2) you dream in rhyme to a tune about what you do, thus composing your
new lab theme song.
Me, I dreamt all night about a new flow cytometer that married the open
configuration of a MoFlow to the capability of an ImageStream.	I also
had expanded staff to run it.  I'll take the staff with my old
FACScan!!


And the song?

To the tune of "Home on the Range"

Oh give me a flow,
Where all the cells glow;
(And one has to work in the dark).
I see cells fluoresce,
And never coalesce.
In this way does one make one’s mark.

Refrain:
Flow, flow all the day!
No clogs to get in my way.
FITC and PE
Is what I shall see.
Science triumphant alway'.

If ISAC needs a theme song, we can talk....



Beverly E. Barton, Ph.D.
Research Cancer Biologist
VA NJ-HCS
385 Tremont Avenue
East Orange, NJ 07018


and


Assistant Professor
Department of Surgery/Division of Urology
UMDNJ-NJMS  F509 lab; F672 office
185 S. Orange Avenue
Newark, New Jersey 07103


Telephone973-972-0662
E-mailbartonbe@umdnj.edu
Telefacsimile973-972-3892