Extraction of DNA from E.coli bacteria

I chose to research the extraction of DNA from E. coli bacteria because by extracting DNA it will allow us to identify its genetic characteristics to develop proven and reliable methods of diagnosis and of course to find new medications for it.  The more knowledge we have on this microbe the faster we can correctly identify it and start to treat it.

My plan for researching this project will be to use five different protocols for extracting DNA from the bacteria E. coli .  The first protocol that will be conducted is a high quality commercial extraction kit that gives high DNA yields. The other four protocols are the boiling, meat tenderizer, freeze-thaw and egg whites protocols.  These remaining four protocols will be conducted and compared to the first protocol of high quality commercial kit to see which one will produce comparable DNA extraction yields.  

My hypothesis is that out of the four remaining protocols tested the freeze thaw protocol will produce a comparable DNA yield to that of the high quality commercial DNA extraction kit.  We'll see what happens I'm excited to find out.

Here is a diagram of the freeze and thaw protocol that I will be doing next week:
 

 

First Day of Lab

Today was my first day in the STEM-Scholarship Program Spring 2017!  I am truly excited about doing some hands on learning and research.  First thing addressed today was, Lab Procedures and Safety.  I watched a few safety videos, saw examples of what not to do and the dire consequences inflicted on equipment and people who don’t follow lab procedures and rules.

Safety Video Titles:

Safety Gears                   The Sloppy Lab                                Food in the Lab                

Chemical Hazards        Centrifugation Hazards                  Chemical Hazards            
Emergency Response   Evacuate

Afterwards I got to do some work in the lab. I started by washing my hands, cleaning my workbench with 70% Ethanol and labeling my TSB tubes and TSA plate.  I transferred an unknown microbe from TSB tube # 1 and inoculated blank TSB tube # 2 with it.  The next step was to use a streak plate method and inoculate a TSA plate with a sample from TSB tube # 2.  Afterwards I put my samples in the incubator to grow microbes.  Hopefully when I come back to the lab, I will have successfully inoculated the TSA plate and grown single colonies of unknown microbes.  We’ll see what they look like in a couple of days! 

MHG

Here is a picture of my unknown microbe bacteria children that I grew.