Week 6: Gels and Beads
Claire S -
This week, I went into the lab on Thursday and got to help out on two projects. The first project was about the diets of large carnivores like pumas and bobcats. I got to run a gel electrophoresis to see if the PCR step worked out. My mentor wanted to know what size fragments had been amplified. We made a solution of 1% agarose and then poured it into the container and let it harden. We prepared the DNA by adding a dye which makes it easier to see under the UV light. We very carefully pipetted the DNA into each of the wells. The next step involved hooking the gel up to the machine that would run 100 volts through the gel. We let it run and then placed it on a UV light and took a picture of the gel. (Pictures at the end)
The other project I helped with involved Songbird samples. We extracted the DNA from dried blood samples and I got to use a bead beater machine. We put plastic beads inside the tubes and the machine spun them really fast. We used a different protocol than Qiagen but it was mostly the same. (Pictures at the end).
Other than that, I researched more about the Sidewinder rattlesnakes and worked on editing my proposal. Our sequencing data came back which I will hopefully be able to look at next week once some paperwork is done. That’s all I did this week; I got my wisdom teeth out last week so I wanted to take things easy.
Comments:
All viewpoints are welcome but profane, threatening, disrespectful, or harassing comments will not be tolerated and are subject to moderation up to, and including, full deletion.