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Week 2 - 6/24

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setting up a qPCR experiment

On Tuesday, Mrs. Robinson came and visited the lab. I gave her a very informal lab tour with Dr. Somarelli and showed her my cells. After that, I worked on a paper and ran qPCR.

On Monday, I learned about a process called RT which is reverse transcription. What this does is it turns RNA into cDNA or coding DNA. This will be put into a qPCR which shows gene expression over time. For RT you use RNA and have to determine the concentration of the RNA in the sample. Based on this, there are different amounts of the sample that should be added to a master mix of different buffers and primers. I also split my cells unsupervised for the first time which was super cool. I successfully divided my cells and was able to plate them.




On Thursday, I set up a qPCR experiment unsupervised. It was really cool and scary since it was one of my first things doing completely unsupervised. There were also a few steps in the process where I had to dilute a few of the ingredients for a master mix that is put in the qPCR experiment


On Friday, I set up a western blot. These are the gels that we do in biology. Electric currents go through the gel to bring different items with different weights through the gel. It is important to have the same concentration of buffer, a product that goes in the blanks and the samples, in each well. Then I worked on the review paper I have been writing.

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