How do scientists take DNA out of a living thing? It’s not that hard—there are lots of ways to do it! You can follow the directions in the video below to get DNA out of a strawberry. Or you can follow the steps after that. Either way you’ll have strawberry DNA at the end!

What you need:

• measuring cup
• measuring spoons
• rubbing alcohol

• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 tablespoon Dawn dishwashing detergent
• glass or small bowl

• cheesecloth
• funnel
• tall drinking glass
• 3 strawberries (green tops removed)
• reclosable plastic sandwich bags
• test tube or small glass jar (like the kind spices come in)
• bamboo skewer or kabob sticks  (find them at the grocery store)

What to do:

1. Chill the rubbing alcohol in the freezer. (You’ll need it later.)
2. Mix the salt, water, and Dawn detergent in a glass or small bowl. Set the mixture aside. This is your extraction liquid.
3. Line the funnel with the cheesecloth, and put the funnel’s tube into the glass.
4. Put the strawberries in the plastic bag and push out all the extra air. Seal it tightly.
5. With your fingers, squeeze and smash the strawberry mixture for 2 minutes.
6. Add 3 tablespoons of the extraction liquid you made in Step 2 to the strawberries in the bag. Push out all the extra air and reseal the bag.
7. Squeeze the strawberry mixture with your fingers for 1 minute.
8. Pour the strawberry mixture from the bag into the funnel. Let it drip into the glass until there is no liquid left in the funnel.
9. Throw away the cheesecloth and the strawberry pulp inside. Pour the contents of the glass into the test tube or small glass jar so it is 1/4 full.
10. Tilt the test tube or jar and very slowly pour the cold rubbing alcohol down the side. The alcohol should form a layer on top of the strawberry liquid. (Don’t let the alcohol and strawberry liquid mix. The DNA collects between the two layers!)
11. Dip the bamboo skewer into the test tube where the alcohol and strawberry layers meet. Pull up the skewer. The whitish, stringy stuff is DNA containing strawberry genes!

You can try these steps to purify DNA from lots of other living things. Grab some oatmeal or kiwis from the kitchen and try it again! Which foods give you the most DNA?

Here is a link to troubleshooting tips and FAQ list from the “Extract DNA from Anything Living” experiment: 20 Most Frequently Asked Questions

Syndicated from thetech.org “Do-it-yourself Strawberry DNA”

Tito Jankowski is one of the organizers of the DIY Bio community and he’s trying to make the field of biotechnology accessible to amateurs as well. He thinks anyone should be able to look at their DNA. You can start by swabbing saliva from inside your mouth and then look at it in a small, home-based lab. His small San Francisco-based company, Pearl Biotech, is starting to develop some of the equipment you’d need. The Pearl Gel Box, a gel electrophoresis system, is based on an open-source hardware design, like many of these projects, which means that the specifications are open and shared publicly. Anyone could use these specifications to build their own version of this equipment and customize it for a specific application. Or you can buy the Pearl Gel box in versions from $189 to $500, depending on how much assembly you’re willing to do yourself. Commercial versions cost more than $1,000 but most importantly, their producers don’t expect anyone but scientists or technicians to be using them.

Read more at the MAKE Magazine Blog…

Read on: http://articles.sfgate.com/2009-12-20/news/17353578_1_dna-garages-citizen-scientists

Biotech in the basement — read on! http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v27/n12/full/nbt1209-1077.html

Sure it takes years of training to become a world class biologist, but now you can have fun with their equipment without slaving away in academia. Pearl Biotech is selling an electrophoresis gel box, an instrument used in the separation and characterization of DNA online. Electrophoresis is a safe procedure that is useful to molecular biologists but can be enjoyed by anyone. It’s a standard experiment in high school labs. The Pearl Gel Box is an open hardware device which means that anyone is free to build or adapt it as along as they share their modifications in a similar manner. Pearl Biotech sells a fully assembled version for $200. By providing a cheap entry level tool for genetics Pearl is helping generate interest in the field and supporting the do it yourself community.

Read more at: http://singularityhub.com/2009/10/29/open-hardware-for-molecular-biology-experiments/