This Week At CART – Adeline Valdez

The Biotechnology Lab has been a lot of fun this week as we have studied the structure of DNA and RNA. DNA stands for Deoxyribonucleic Acid and RNA stands for Ribonucleic Acid. DNA is essential to all living things as it holds the instructions for our cells to develop, survive, and reproduce. RNA is also crucial, and is responsible for making necessary proteins. For human cells, DNA is housed in the nucleus of a cell. Meanwhile, RNA is more prevalent as it existsin the cytoplasm, nucleus, and ribosomes. They work in different areas and parts of our cells to make-up life-essential proteins. This week we have delved further in to this subject, using electrophoresis and Kool-Aid to represent DNA.

The purpose of the electrophoresis is to separate molecules based on their size, normally DNA. The technique begins by creating an electrophoresis gel or agarose gel by mixing 0.30 g of agarose and 30 mL of TAE buffer and then boiling the mixture. This makes the molecules in the mixture expand and once it cools it solidifies into a gel material. Before we pour it into a small tray and let it solidify we put what’s called a comb on the tray so that when the mixture hardens there are pockets or wells for the Kool-Aid to be put in. After waiting for the mixture to solidify we put the tray into an electrophoresis chamber, which will shock the gel and move the molecules. Next, we added more of the TAE buffer into the machine, to help conduct the needed electricity. Then we turned on the machine and shocked the gel in the buffer at 110 volts for 20 minutes. After the 20 minutes was over we could see the coloring from the Kool-Aid had moved through the gel. Since the left side of the machine represented a negative charge and the right positive we were able to determine the charge of the molecules in the Kool-Aid. If it went toward the positive side it has a negative charge and vice versa, this is because opposite charges attract. From there we could tell the size of the molecules based on how far they traveled from their wells. The further they went the smaller they are, so we were able to conclude the red molecules were the largest since they traveled the furthest from the wells.

As you can see, CART keeps us busy, but we learn in a very hands-on way; we work collaboratively, and we are using equipment that is usually found in professional research lab. I appreciate that at CART I am able to have such engaging work.