Most summers we have around 20 students working in the Microbiology and Molecular Biology lab, SB209, in the Science Building on the Brayford Pool campus. This is a place for those students to share their experience.
//Already run my PCR today – the joys of running 2-step PCR as opposed to 3-step.
Running out the fragments on a 1.5% gel at the moment but because I want coffee I’m running it slowly – 80V for 2.5 hrs.
Against a 100bp ladder.
//Howdy all,
For those that don’t know, I’m always floating around the lab under some guise. Currently I’m finishing up some written work, shortly I will be back to my PhD research which will involve some PCRs that I’ve designed and cloning the products into E.coli. I will also be getting some more sequencing work done, and then after taking a bit of a break (I need a holiday!) will be looking at some protein expression.
Since you can see all the previous posts from last year, I was responsible for supervising the PFGE project on P.acnes and the videoblogging which was really successful and is being presented at this years Student As Producer conference.
Get blogging!!! Honestly, this is a good platform for you to think/reflect/discuss and log what you’ve done. It will be worth it.
Get involved 😀
//Last day in the lab today 🙁
Quite unexpectedly the spread plates yesterday grew very well, over 100 colonies on each plate. I carried on to replica plate the ones with close to 100 colonies and incubated them over night at 37C. These also grew very well, i documented these down but i am not sure of what these results mean (if anything) as T0 did not yield enough growth to replica plate. Because it was just a plate count day i did pcr, using my hair, just as the results from before im a boy!?!
//Hi all,
Interesting day, started the day by making 3000ml of TAE buffer. Next i ran a PCR test with a sample of my hair. When we looked at the gel under the UV some showed two bands and some showed just one band, either i’m a boy or luke is a girl. Think we may need to redo the test and look up which banding type (1 or 2) shows a male or female. Researched a few of the bacterial cultures on my bench, some are same species where an indole test is the only way to differentiate them.
//Hi all,
Checked Lactobacillus plates, Two do not look like the other three, after Gram staining a sample colony from all the plates, two had Gram positve small cocci. The other three showed long rod shaped gram negative chains, ths was more like what i expected to find. To be sure, i restreaked these onto M17agar with added Lactose and incubated them overnight at 37C. In preparation for tomorrows PCR tests i made up the solutions needed, working out quantities of HCl and Tris-HCl in 200mM. Microbiology is fun but maths makes my head hurt!!! big thanks to nicola for her little equation, i now can work molar solutions out but i think more practice is definately needed
//Evening all x
Yesterday did a PCR test with my cheek cells, mouthwash was yuck! but good news is i’m human. Today was a day of filling in COSHH and risk assessment forms, definately NOT a fun part of my day, but necessary. Confirmed M.luteus so made up stabs and slopes, Chromobacterium CV026 also confirmed, made into stabs and slopes. Made up a batch of TAE and another litre of 50x (Tris base, glacial aceitic acid, EDTA and made up to 1L with distilled water). The main thing i learned, is to not go to lunch and leave the tris to dissolve. increased pressure made it near impossible to remove the stopper, fortunately we are scientists – heating the glass whilst running cold water on the lid, hey presto, the stopper comes off.
//The Tale of Steve the Plasmid by Becky Lane.
Once upon a time, there was a little plasmid called Steve. He grew up in a cell called the MicroLab, before being brutally extracted by the alkaline lysis we have come to call ‘Becky’. So cold he was when put in the fridge, then so confused when running through the gel, seperated from all the other little plasmids. He was then almost destroyed by Mr Ethidium Bromide, then blinded by UV light, but he was still alive. Cut, he was. Seperated. Everything around him became like jelly as the agarose solubilised. More solutions came to attack from all sides until he was totally alone. Then PCR. Oh dear. The thing he had been dreading the most. It was finally here. Burned alive as he was torn apart, his entrails ripped from him and multiplied, amplified a million times. Surrounded by entrails, he wept. As his world grew cooler once more, he knew it was over. Once more he was placed in a tank, electricity flowwing through him. But he was weak, tooo weak.
Only his entrails would be visible on that machine they call a computer. All else would be thrown away, brushed out of sight, out of mind.
So there he sat in the hazardous waste bin, all alone, forever more…..
The End.
Becky Lane will return in the Tale of the Caterpiller Lady.