Presentations, Extractions, and Enzyme Digestions, Oh My! (Week 6)

This week has been full of new and exciting events. From mid-term presentations to lots of DNA analysis to an NSF site visit, this week has been packed.

            On Monday, all of us interns had to present a mid-term presentation. This included a background of our projects, what we had done so far, and where we are planning to go. Through this session, we all got to learn about each other’s projects and how they all interconnect with each other. Although I was quite nervous, I was excited to share my project with the other interns and frontline mentors.

            Throughout this whole week I extracted more Fosmid DNA to examine for the presence of the Archael 16S gene. I ran many gels with various results in order to screen for this gene. I am also trying to discover if the Fosmid insert is large or small. To do this I am using an enzyme, called Not1, which cuts out the Fosmid insert allowing for me to run a gel comparing uncut Fosmids with cut ones.

            This week also contained a visit from the National Science Foundation (NSF). This was quite interesting because CMOP is funded in many ways by the NSF. They came here to evaluate CMOP and to listen to presentations from some of the professors here. It was quite an interesting experience because I got to learn a little bit about what funders such as the NSF expect from those they support. At lunch I talked with one NSF member about how they are trying to expand internship opportunities to younger ages, such as college freshmen and even upperclassmen high school students. I really connected with this because I think internships are important in the search for future career goals and the earlier they are pursued and attained, the more they benefit. The NSF visit was quite insightful and gave me a glimpse at some of the logistics that comes with being funded for research.

Also, I finally got a gel from PCR on E.coli clones that is completely positive for the Archael 16S gene! This is exciting and out next step will be to extract Fosmid DNA from these clones.
Below shows the results I just mentioned. There are two rows of wells were the DNA was placed. When the gel was run you can see that the bands that have moved away are all about the same size. These bands are the 16S gene we are looking for! :)