ooOooooppps...I DiD iT aGaIn

On Monday, Feb.2, we extracted DNA from the organisms that grew on our plates. The plates that my group used were 27, 29, 34, 44, 45, and 48. To do the extraction we used a DNA kit that includes: beads, spin filters, solutions (MD1-MD5), and some other tubes. The MD4 solution contains ethanol. In order to extract the DNA we have to break the cell wall. There are two ways that this can be done; they are enzymatic methods and physical methods. The two physical methods are the beads and the French press. The beads work by colliding with each other and the French press works by using pressure. We used the bead method. The protocol of how we went about doing this step-by-step is in my lab notebook. Monday was also the day that I FORGOT TO PUT THE LID ON THE CENTRIFUGE. Somehow I managed not to the words LID written on the top of the centrifuge. I corrected this mistake and put the lid on, however, when I did, I managed not to secure the lid by pushing down on it....sorry, I mean this was my first time using one of this "high tech machines." HAHA!! On Wednesday, Feb. 4, we ran our DNA out on agarose gel. We used Tris as the buffer. We also used ethidium bromide, which is a known carcinogen, however, I can't exactly recall it's purpose...I you do, REPLY TO THIS BLOG. Once our DNA had ran through the gel, we noticed that ours didn't have a lot of DNA. This may be due to the lovely fact that I somehow managed to now get it all into the well. I mean, I thought I had a steady had and was a professional pipetter. LoL! I'm starting to think that I may be a hazard to this lab. I make a lot of mistakes without trying. But trust me....I'M WORKING ON THEM!