The Molecular Science Life

I spent this past week at SERC doing molecular biology. This teeny tiny world is not one I've dealt with a lot before this week. Most of the research I've done before this week was on a more macro scale. But I'm always up for a challenge! I'm always eager to learn new things and explore new avenues of science.! Here's a few highlights of the bench work I did last week at SERC!

When I was at Bryn Mawr, I cut 25mg of Phragmites samples into little microtubles. Then at SERC I added  300micro L of buffer RLT to each microtuble. Buffer RLT is a lysis buffer, used to lyse cells prior to DNA isolation. Lysis is the breaking down of a cell, and is especially used when one wishes to avoid dramatic forces that would denature sensitive molecules like proteins or DNA.


The lysis helped to obtain the DNA, but then the DNA had to be purified. The picture to the right is of my purified DNA samples, with pipette tips and a box of KimWipes in the background of course! I purified the DNA through a number of specific chemicals and a machine called the BioSprint 96, set on a plant DNA protocol. There are seven different slots on the BioSprint, and I had to make sure each slot got the correct chemical in the correct amount. There was lots of double-checking with my notes and cross-referencing with the official protocol, to make sure I was doing everything as I was supposed to.

There's the first PCR plate I did all by myself! Science is pretty as well as amazing! It's the Red PCR Master Mix that makes the wells look pink. The Red Master Mix is a pre-made mix that has all the reagents needed for PCR with a colorful inert red dye. It makes running a PCR simpler, so one does not have to add each separate chemical individually. But I do have to dilute the primer 10x, then add more water, and the Red Master Mix. PCR is short for polymerase chain reaction, it's used to amplify DNA to create thousands or even millions of copies of a particular DNA sequence - which is what the primers help to identify. Each primer is for a different sequence. We used 8 different primers, each of which had to be run as separate PCR cycle, especially because several had different annealing temperatures. 

That's a pretty brief summary and I skipped a few steps in my summary, but this post gives y'all a view of what I've been up during the hours and hours I spent in lab at SERC while gaining new lab skills and experiencing a new corner of ecology based biology!