It's only been a week, but hundreds of tubes have already passed through my hands.
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| The unlabeled tubes are the ones in which the original specimens arrived at the lab. I have to label all the other tubes that I use (4 for each specimen)! |
Right now, I'm working on extracting DNA from the legs of South African dragonflies. This process involves a lot of pipetting and centrifuging and tube exchanges - all skills that I learned from Biotech during winter term. Thanks, Dr. Peretz!
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| Pipetting some buffer into a spin column |
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| Getting the DNA into its final tube after one last centrifugation |
After extracting the DNA from the legs, I place 2 μL of each of the resulting solutions on the spectrophotometer, which shoots a laser through the droplet and tells me how much DNA I managed to acquire after all my hard work.
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| The spectrophotometer |
After I record the data into my spreadsheet, I place all the tubes of extracted DNA into freezer, where they will stay until it's time for the PCR.
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Overall, this week has been very interesting. I've learned how to maneuver through the train station, extracted DNA from 74 dragonfly legs, and met many nice people in the lab - including, unexpectedly, a Whovian and two anime fans. My experience at Dr. Ware's lab has been lovely so far, and I hope to have even more great experiences as I get to know lab members better and find new tasks to accomplish.
Sounds like a great start to the lab! I am glad those biotech skills are coming in useful. When you get a chance, give us a little more info about your project's goals, since those were a bit murky when we last saw you!
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