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Working in a lab
For the past couple of days in the lab, my partner and I have been running verification tests known as digests in order to assure that our DNA is still present in our cultures. After the digests have been completed our samples are run on a gel electrophoresis so that the length of the bands can be determined. Since no bands can be seen on our gel after the completion of our digests, my partner and I had to conduct another miniprep today on our samples to assure that our DNA is still present within our cultures. Luckily, these test results came back positive assuring that there is DNA still present. After this was determined we had to grow up our cultures in E. coli which is known as inoculation. This process took about 4 hours because we had to wait till our cultures had an absorbency of about .5 on the spectrometer. Our cultures were then harvested and prepared to be run on columns in order to gather the proteins. My partner and I spent approximately 7 hours in the lab while my professor spent an additional 3 hours working on our project. From this you can see how time consuming working in a lab can be, but also there is a very rewarding feeling that comes with this after realizing what you have accomplished. Here are some pictures of the lab that I work in like I promised you...
These pictures show you what my lab looks like
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Here is a picture of me loading a gel
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And lastly this is the machine that allows us to read the different size bands on the gel
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In some of this work seems to be over your head, please don't worry. All the professors (Dr. Raab, Dr. McKown, and Dr. Coffman) see that you are trained with the proper lab protocols and well as proper lab technique. Before entering the biotechnology lab, I did not have very much experience working with the machinery that I use now. Everyone is extremely helpful and will take the time to thoroughly explain anything to you and it is for some of these reasons why I enjoy the Biotechnology sector here in ISAT so much!
Posted by Kristen on June 9, 2005 09:30 AM | Link | Email Kristen
