blipton
Member
I saw the video,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrejvnVfZJE
and I would love to play with it! I'm only a sophomore in high school, but I love chemistry and biology and pretty much hacking in general!
What I'm curious though, is that with 3 billion base pairs of dna, which or how much can the device look at?
Thanks!
Ben
http://genome.ucsc.edu/cgi-bin/hgGateway
http://www.geneious.com/
Tito
Key Master
Hey Ben,
You can look at however much of it you want. The process we showed in the video is looking at a single letter that says a lot about bitter tasting ability. With a PCR machine and a gel box, you can look at any single letter you want. Here's some great virtual labs to get you started:
Extract DNA: http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/labs/extraction/
Copy DNA with PCR: http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/labs/pcr/
Visualize DNA with a gel box: http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/labs/gel/
Let us know what other questions you have!
Tito
Founder, Pearl Biotech
blipton
Member
Thanks, those video labs are pretty cool!
So, if I understand correctly, the primer is what's used to mark the DNA area of interest. But practically speaking how is this done? For example, if Wiki shows a Gene with a 'UCSC' location of "Chr 7: 127.67 - 127.68 Mb", how does this get translated to the Primer (chemical) solution?
My teacher is totally psyched about me doing this, offering whatever is in the school lab for this! However, I didn't see a parts list of required chemicals (A,C,G,T, etc). Is it common chemicals for this kind of thing?
Also, the only power supply at school that even comes close the 100v required is a dual supply of 40v / 5A each. If I cascade (positive terminal of one, to the negative of the other) I'm thinking I can get 80V / 10A, but is that good enough? How much current at 100V is needed?
Thanks!
Ben
Tito
Key Master
You're exactly right, primers are used to mark the DNA area of interest. These days, a company will synthesize them for you -- such as Invitrogen: https://commerce.invitrogen.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=orderAssemble.simpleAddPrimerToCart&primerTypeCode=D&lid=DNABasic
It's a bit complicated though. As a starter guide for PCR, here's a description of a kit offered by Carolina. (The chemicals/etc in the kit kind of suck, but the instructions are good)
http://www.carolina.com/category/teacher+resources/instructions+and+buying+guides/biotech+kit+instruction+manuals/using+a+single-nucleotide+polymorphism+to+predict+bitter+tasting+ability.do
And, here's a basic gel electrophoresis experiment with food coloring -- I've done it a couple times myself
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/labs/gel/electrophoresis/
The current needed is really low. I've done electrophoresis with just 4 9V batteries hooked together. It moves a bit slower than a 100V power supply, but works fine. Here's a $100 power supply to get you started with electrophoresis:
http://educationalscience.com/merchant.ihtml?pid=3178&step=4&passwordstatus=:passwordstatus
Let me know if I answered all your questions or if you have any others!
Tito
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