Taqman and PCR

Monday was quite interesting. A couple of minutes upon arriving at the Center for Human Genetics Building, the fire alarm went off and everyone had to be evacuated outside the building. When we came back in, I looked at the results for the last for Taqman plates. Sadly, two of the plates failed to amplify, which means that I have to re-do these plates. Then, Chris showed me how to do PCR. He explained the functions of the various ingredients in the master mix. For instance, the taq is an enzyme used for replication and amplification of a DNA fragment. He also showed me how to work the PCR machines. When I finished lunch, I had to re-do the plates that failed. Chris then allowed me to do PCR by myself, which was so exciting. For the remainder of the day, I analyzed the rest of the Taqman plates. In addition, I went into Pub Med and searched for the gene ALAD and lead and neurotoxicity.
Tuesday was a fun day also. I enjoyed the Primate Center tour. I have never seen lemurs in the past and it was amazing to see how closely they resembled humans. In the lab, Chris and I went to use the Biomek robot for transferring DNA into the 384 deep-well plates. At the same time, Robin came to my lab for a lab visit. We talked about various aspects of my project as well as the poster. After lunch, I had a meeting with Dr. Allison and Melanie. We looked at different data and statistics regarding smoking, genotypes, and polymorphisms in relation with ADHD. Amazingly, we found many significance in the data. We also discussed the status of the materials for my project. I then headed back to the lab and did two PCR plates. We actually had a small going away party for two members of the lab who are going to be relocating to Miami. We had some cake and everyone in my lab joined in. Overall, Tuesday went well.
On Wednesday, I was able to make an agarose gel. It was somewhat nerve wrecking to handle even just a small amount of ethidium bromide since it could possibly affect my future children’s DNA. It was, however, interesting how we made a gel with multiple rows of wells rather than just one. The purpose of the gel was to see if our PCRs worked. After running the gel, we took a picture of it and measured the band sizes. Fortunately my first PCRs were great. After lunch, I completed one more PCR plate, and then I proceeded to do two Taqman plates for different SNPs. I then started working on my blogs for thirty minutes. Afterwards, Chris and Dr. Allsion helped me out with my introduction.
On Thursday, I met with Dr. Allison in the morning. She informed me about the upcoming family visit for the ADHD research study patients, wherein they go through a series of tests and get their blood drawn. I am very thrilled to see that. After that, I went to my lab and finished two PCR plates. When lunch was over, I ran the samples from the plates onto the agarose gel to see if my PCR was successful. For the remainder of the day, I completed some more Taqman for patients enrolled in the hostility study.
Finally on Friday, I started planning out the methods section of my poster. Also, I searched about the various SNPs in the genes that I will be studying. I had to find its role and its functions. I made three PCR plates using different primers and ran them on the PCR machine. After that, I made an agarose gel to test my plates on. When lunch was over, I tested my samples from my PCR plates. As it turned out, my PCR turned out well. For the rest of the day, I worked on some more PCR plates and headed to the Schiciano Auditorium for the seminar speaker !! This week was a busy week, but it turned out great!