“Lack of resource has hanged many a person." -Irish Proverb
Here is a list of ten excellent online resources for every Ph.D. student:
10) Trying to calculate buffer conditions? Sigma Aldrich has a great site where you can input your desired concentration, molecular weight, etc. Use to check your calculations; it has been awhile since general chemistry I'm sure! http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/life-science/core-bioreagents/biological-buffers.html
9) Deciding on which restriction enzymes to use to generate that perfect cut? New England Biosciences (NEB) Cutter program shows you all the zero, 1, multiple cutters for your inputted sequence of interest. http://tools.neb.com/NEBcutter2/index.php
8) Looking for a research position, post-doctoral fellowship, or faculty position? Look no further than http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/index.html
7) Want to know more about a gene, protein, or RNA? The UCSC genome browser (a former PhD project at UCSC) is a wonderful mapping tool.
6) Designing primers for PCR? Primer 3 allows you to input your sequence, specify your conditions, and generates multiple primer pairs. http://frodo.wi.mit.edu/primer3
5) Need a laugh? Relate to the adventures of the students at Piled Higher and Deeper at http://www.phdcomics.com
4) Purchasing an antibody and there are so many to choose from? Try, http://www.biocompare.com/jump/2045/Antibody-Search.html which does the online comparison shopping for you!
3) Tired of manually searching pubmed.org to keep up with your project literature? You can set up query searches at pubmed.org or pubcrawler.gen.tcd.ie and these services will email you when new papers are published pertaining to your queries.
2) Embarking on a new technique? Check Current Protocols to get the step by step explanation, history, and technical support. http://www.currentprotocols.com
1) Looking for a lab with funding? Federal grant funding through the NIH is public record so check the NIH RePORTER for your PI and see if they can support a graduate student so you aren't wasting your time. This is also helpful if you want to learn more about projects in a given lab because grant proposal overviews are also available. http://projectreporter.nih.gov/reporter.cfm
