iGEM Begins!

Today was the first day that our team met to actually begin doing the project. Since most of or team does not have wetlab experience outside of what we have done in class, we will be learning how to do the different laboratory techniques that will be used through the summer. Today, we learned about Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). First, we got the master mix (which can be found in our Laboratory Protocols section) and attempted a PCR of our own to multiply DNA received from the Registry last year. We used the plasmids R0040 123502 (Red), R0040 GFP C2 (Blue) and R0040 GFP C1 (Yellow). After multiplying our DNA, we did agarose gel electrophoresis to determine whether the DNA was actually multipled. Blue dye was used to make the DNA visible and the gel electrophoresis was run at 90V for approximately 40 minutes. For full procedures of PCR and gel electrophoresis, please see our Lab Protocols section. The gel was then photographed and we learned how to save the photos from the lab computer. In the future, all gels and unique plates should be photographed and kept on the wiki.