Rachel Warnick's blog

So this is my last blog ever!!!  This past week has been pretty crazy trying to cram in as much lab work as I could while also working on my final powerpoint presentation and paper.  

So I can't handle how fast this week went by!  It was pretty jam packed....  lots of different PCR reactions, gel purification, cloning galore and sampling!

The cryptophyte rubisco primers are working really well and next week we will have sequences for multiple sample locations and dates! We will have sequences for peak red tide blooms for 2007 and 2008, Ilwaco on June 30th, Ilwaco on July 21st, Willapa on June 30th and Willapa on June 23rd (different sampling team). I am very excited to get all the sequences back and compare them!

This past week I extracted a sample Lydie collected on July 21st from Ilwaco Bay that showed slight red water coloration. I ran a few PCR reactions with several samples from Ilwaco, Willapa and La Push. Unfortunately, I did not have any amplification occur. On Thursday and Friday I purified all the samples using a gel purification technique (I basically just cut out the DNA band from the gel to isolate it). I am anxious to work with the gel purified samples to see if they produce better results with the PCR! 

This week marked the half way point of the internship! I can't believe 5 weeks have gone by so quickly. In order to stay on track for our final presentation, all the interns gave a brief presentation about what we have accomplished so far and what we hope to accomplish in the next five weeks. I thought everyone did a great job and I enjoyed seeing the variety of projects interns are working on and how some of them fit together. I have attached my powerpoint slides from my presentation.

Overall this week has been very successful! I have prepared the two samples from the peak of the red tide Myrionecta rubra bloom from 2007 and 2008 for cloning. They were sent to the primate center this morning to be sequenced! I am very anxious to see the results next week!

This week I began using my new primer, however to my disappointment I haven't had any results. Today I tried out many different concentrations of the DNA template so we will see if this makes a difference!

This week has gone by fast! I have been purifying the DNA in our samples by preparing a low melting agar gel, running the samples and then cutting out the DNA bans to purify them. Although I did encounter a problem on the second day when the final product did not turn out, this method has worked well. With the gel purified extractions I ran 16s and 18s PCR reactions at different dilutions to determine what gave the best result. Overall, the best result was obtained by using twice as much template.

On Monday of this week the site visit team from the National Science Foundation, whose grant funds the CMOP research, came for a day of presentations regarding all the research going on here at CMOP.  Although it was a long day of presentations, it was great to see all the research being conducted and the technology being used in all different fields of CMOP's research. It also gave me a better idea of CMOP's overall goals as an organization.

I have made it through week 1 with no huge catastrophes! This week has been exhausting and jam packed but I have learned so much and I have really enjoyed my work in the lab.