Progress
Last week was good in lab, my mentor Josh has kept me really busy. Early on in the week I had to figure out how to make DNA primers to be used to mutate a gene that codes for an enzyme. It was cool ordering the primers and receiving the exact sequence that I helped design a few days later by fedex. I posted a few pics of the primers below. I find that it’s hard to fully grasp the ideas of everything I’m assigned to do, but its really good because I believe that first hand experience is one of the best ways to learn, especially when it has to do with lab procedures and why you use specific buffers and lysing agents and not others. I was in lab yesterday (Saturday) extracting DNA from bacteria and began a PCR reaction using the primers that arrived a few days earlier. Tomorrow I have to process the results of the PCR reaction, make a solution so I can run gels of the products of the PCR reaction to make sure the primers worked, make a couple other DNA primers, and try to understand why I’m doing what I’m doing in lab. Should be fun, a little exhausting, but its cool.
Ordering primers:
Primers arrived:
June 18th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
the lab sounds cool, Jose! I hope you’re having fun with all the PCR. Ordering all that stuff is ridiculous…it’s amazing how 20 microliters of something can cost almost $200!
June 19th, 2007 at 8:07 pm
The PCR stuff is surprisingly cool, especially since I got lots of product from my PCR today. Nice to see one’s efforts paying off. The high prices just makes me more careful, lol.
June 22nd, 2007 at 1:43 pm
If only you could find a way to sell your PCR product… then you’d be rich!