More Amino Acids

Last Friday (September 20th), I returned to RPI for more lab work. I had a shorter day today because I had to leave early to go to Massachusetts for a horse show. This week, I continued to work on preparing amino acid solutions. I finished the rest of the 20 amino acids that I started to make last week! These amino acid solutions will eventually be used in microarray experiments.

I will not be able to go to RPI next Friday because I am participating in a program at Cornell, but I'll look forward to returning on October 4th!!

Data Preparation and Amino Acids

Yesterday (September 13th), I went over to RPI for more work in the lab. I got to see the gel I prepared last week! Unfortunately, the gel turned out useless because it had too many metal ions which caused there to be what was basically an extended row of dye instead of separated bars. The gel was still helpful, though, because now we will not attempt any more gels with those types of solutions!

My first job for the day was to compile some of the data from our previous Claudin-5 microarrays. For each of our past experiments, we have pixel intensity data for the resulting microarrays. At this point, we want to compile all of the past data to be able to look at it as a whole. On JP's computer, each past experiment has it's own folder, so I copied an .mev converter file into each folder. After doing so, I opened the .mev converter file and all of the .mev files for a certain experiment, and I moved all of the data into the converter file. After doing so for every experiment, the .mev converters were ready to run, and they will be run by next week!

My second job was to prepare tubes to make amino acid solutions. I labeled each tube:
Three-letter code (one-letter code)
Mg amino acid to be added
mL solution to be added

After doing this for all 20 amino acids, I then began to add the specified amount of each amino acid to its specified tube.

I can't wait to continue my research next Friday!!

Preparation for an SDS-PAGE Gel

Last Friday (September 6th), I went over to RPI for the first time during this school year! My primary job for the day was preparing for an SDS-PAGE gel. For this gel, we are working with a specific protein of interest.Ultimately, the gel will analyze the bands of the null solution (which does not contain the protein of interest, but contains other host cell proteins (HCPs)) versus the bands of the solution that contains the protein of interest (in addition to the other HCPs). To do this, we are working with different types of protein solutions. First, there are the null solution and the protein of interest solution which are both prepared at 1X and 10X concentration. The different concentrations will ultimately lead to different width bands. Also, there are 10X desalt solutions for both the null and protein of interest. In the original solution, the buffer contains metal ions that can affect how the bands are displayed in the gel, making them appear blurred. In the desalt solutions, the buffer has been exchanged to PBS to eliminate the metal ions and get cleaner bands. Once the gel is run, we expect to see something like the simplified gel below. We expect to get certain bands from the null solution that represent the bands of the HCPs, and we expect to get those same bands from the protein of interest with the addition of an extra band that represents the protein of interest (represented in red in the image).

Today, to prepare for running this gel, I first made the Tris/Glycine/SDS buffer by combining the stock solution with water, mixing the buffer, then putting it on ice to keep it cold (keeping the buffer cold allows for sharper bands in the gel). Next, I made the blue Laemmli sample buffer by combining the stock solution with β-mercaptoethanol (BME). I then labled the solution tubes with the different solutions and added 20 micro-liters of Laemmli buffer to each sample. After each sample was allocated into its respective tube, I denatured the protein solutions in a heat bath for one hour. To prevent the sample tubes from popping open in the heat bath, I wrapped each sample with parafilm (which ultimately caused them to stick together). After the proteins were denatured, I spun the samples, and set them aside to cool. I then set up the gel equipment.

The gel was then ready for JP to run later in the day! I can't wait to see the results when I return to RPI on Friday!

Back to Senior Year!

Although I did not blog this summer, I continued to work in the lab at RPI! Over the summer, I learned so many skills that I can't wait to apply to my work this school year. After my experience at RPI last year, I could not be more excited to start another year in the same lab. Spending an extended period of time in the lab has allowed me to continue to practice different skills with the machinery and materials in the lab, so I am now capable of doing much more than when I first started last Fall!  This year, I hope to keep perfecting my skills and to learn new ones. I hope to continue to get a solid feel of what it's really like to work in a college lab before I head off to college myself next year!