Hello!

This is a place where I can keep everyone updated on my independent project using Polymerase Chain Reaction and Gel Electrophoresis. These processes are used to sequence and study DNA. First you get a sample of DNA. Saliva is a common way of acquiring it. Then you create a lot of copies of the section of DNA you want to study by using a Polymerase Chain Reaction. Basically you put your DNA strands, a lot of DNA bases and an enzyme that can put the bases in the right order into a vial. You then heat the vial up and let the enzyme do its job. The enzyme basically creates thousands of copies of a single strand of DNA. Then you use Gel Electrophoresis to sequence the DNA. In Gel Electrophoresis the DNA strands are sorted according to molecular weight. This means that the longer the strand, the farther up the tray it will be. We do this because a longer strand means that there are more nucleotide bases. The more nucleotide bases there are, the more proteins that can be sequenced from that strand and the more stuff a cell can do if it has that certain strand of DNA.

Right now I'm waiting for all the various enzymes and chemicals to arrive at the Energy Lab. Once those are in, the project can begin!