pVIB transformants from BIOTECH 101. 30 second exposure, iso 100, minimum aperture (aperture as big as it can be) with a brief flash of light at the beginning. This develops the scene around the plate, and then the rest of the blue glowing color develops from the long exposure.
pGREEN (GFP) plasmid transformants. No photo with blue light because the camera picks up the blue light much better than the green light, so the picture comes out all blue. Taken with a white LED light source in the bottom of a brown box. Note: build better photo equipment.
Another good day at the BOSSLAB- Today we transformed GFP and lux-operon plasmids into e. coli! Here’s to hoping that it worked. No matter how many times the transformation procedure is successful, I still have a fear that it wont work, or there will be contamination, but mostly it just works.
Speaking of how BOSS the BOSSLAB is, here is a picture of some of the awesome organization that some of the people who got to biotech 101 did (that Chris organized- thanks Chris!):
WOW! this is the most clutter-free the bench has been in ages- at least since last time it was cleaned! We also autoclaved a ton of old trash, and I sterilized most of our bottle collection later. WOO!
Finally, I remembered to take pictures of what goes on at BOSSLAB classes! Here is a shot of people at the Thursday BIOTECH 101 class, working on streaking the LB plates they poured. There was a lot of curiosity about molecular techniques and DNA, which will be covered (hopefully) in our next class which has a DNA-mobio focus!
Whew. Just ordered a bunch of supplies for BIOTECH 101- and I am not done yet! It is a good thing we have money to order supplies, or this class would NOT happen!
Avery out!
This Saturday, we had an awesome meeting, and then kicked off the first official biotech 101 class offered at BOSSLAB!
Eight people attended the meeting, from engineers to middle school students. We talked about PCR, and had a nice chat about various aspects of biology. Next time I should take better notes during meeting time, and more pictures of the class! But it is hard to remember to take pictures with so much going on and so much to explain.
In the class we covered how to sterilize media, take appropriate safety precautions, some aspects of aseptic technique, how to pipette and how to streak plates. All six of us will be meeting next week for transformations, so stay tuned!
Later, I met with CellFyre (@CellFyre for you twitter people), and we talked about her ambitions to start up a DIYBIO group in Oregon. She seem motivated, and has a lot of experience! I can’t wait to see what she does.
This summer I have an opportunity to change BOSSLAB for the better, so I will be working hard at it! The major improvements that I will try to implement are:
-regular meetings, so people can talk about projects
-some structure for using the equipment safely and in a sustainable way, so we don’t run out of supplies or run equipment into the ground
-regular classes so people can get their hands on biology in a structured way
The next meeting is this Saturday, May 5 2012 at 12 noon. Hopefully I will also be starting a biotech 101 class based on the GFP project (click the link and you will see mostly posts about the GFP project). If you want to sign up for that class, check out the classes page.
Hey folks,
This is my first post on the BOSSLAB site, but I have been organizing DIYBIO Boston events for a while (want to know more about me? click here)! This summer there will be some pretty cool things going on, and I wanted to post them up here so YOU can get involved! Descriptions below, you can sign up here.
Classes:
Well, we are going to start out with one class. Every good bio-hackerspace needs to have an introductory class to how people “hack biology”. This class will cover what you forgot (or never learned) in biology, and provide lab time and safety training. Day one covers “Safety Day”, and introduces aseptic technique. Learn to pipette properly, and use the autoclave to make various kinds of media, and then prepare streak plates of e. coli. Day two will explain the “central dogma” of biology, and we will proceed with transforming e. coli from last time with a plasmid that is to be determined (pGREEN is likely). On day three we will extract plasmid DNA from the bacteria. Day four will be one of two things: either a protein extraction OR running the extracted plasmid in a gel and visualizing it. This will be offered monthly and will cost $200.
Projects:
We will also have a LOT of projects/events:
Ginger beer day:
Come learn to make your own ginger beer! Materials will be somewhere in the $5-10 range.
Kombucha Project:
Learn to grow fermented tea! Find out how a SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast) turns regular tea into a refreshing and fizzy beverage. Materials will be in the $5-10 range.
Yoghut Project:
Come make yoghurt! Still figuring this one out.
Photosynthetic Sea Slugs:
Lets grow some of these! Apparently they are native to the northeast, and there are people who are excited about growing them!
Chitons:
Chitons are armored sea critters that eat algae. Like the slugs, they are local and we can grow them!
Synthetic Biology Project:
For you folks who really want to hack biology and have some experience (or want to hang out with those that do), lets do some synthetic biology! We have the equipment…can you bring the knowledge and dedication?
