Self-doubt kills talent

Self doubt kills talent and yesterday...it almost killed my experiment!
I'm not too sure why it happens but I'm getting better at recognizing it!

This week, I was able to get my own personal DNA extracted from buccal cells and started a very rudimentary version of my DNA extraction experiment.  I wanted to be sure that I could pull it off before I started with the really expensive materials that were ordered for my experiment.  It took me 3 tries to get my gel for the electrophoresis set up correctly, but you know what they say, the third time is the charm! 

I followed an old protocol that I had from last semester for running the gel.  I made my control dye which consisted of 9 um (microliters) of molecular mass ruler and 1 um of SYBR green nucleic acid gel stain and added it to my first well of the gel.  Then, with three different buccal samples, I added 9 um of the extracted DNA, 1 um of SYBR green and 2 um of orange loading dye. I placed them in wells 3, 5 and 7 and filled the electrophoresis rig with 1x TAE buffer solution, hooked it up to the voltage machine and ran 120 volts through it for 40 minutes.

This is what my gel looked like when it was finished and it is also where my doubt set in!

(the blue color is my control and the 3 faint orange colors are from the orange loading dye)

Maybe I have been watching too many episodes of CSI but some some reason I was expecting to see dark bands of DNA that ran down my gel.  I felt defeated to say the least and I was about to toss out my gel when Josh told me to have Matt take a look at it.  It was perfect timing as Matt and Anil were talking and they came over to see my progress and boy....does it pays to ask the experts!  It worked!!  The bands that I was expecting to see would not show up until I ran my actual PCR, (phew).  Anil put my gel in the Bioimaging system which shines a UV light onto the gel in order for the maker, DNA and loading dyes to glow.

This is what was produced:

 (On the left side of the gel you can see 3 bright bands towards the top, that is my DNA, they are glowing).

From here, my next step will be to run the PCR and amplify (or copy) the DNA sequence from those samples.  It is from that process, that I will be able to see the rows of dark bands form on a similar gel.

What is PCR and how does it work

Happy Thursday everyone!!

I have been doing a lot of research on my project as I have been waiting for the rest of my supplies to come in (which, I'm excited to report that they are almost all in, thanks Matt!!).  One of the most important process's to my project is called PCR, Polymerase Chain Reaction.

So what is PCR?  Well it is the process of replicating or copying a small portion of a single side of the DNA double helix, outside of the body.  Sounds complicated right??  Well our body makes copies of existing cells every single day and I have been given a great protocol  to do this. 

The process beings with unwinding the DNA double helix, because as you all know, it is in a ladder shape and it is coiled extremely tight so a process of 'melting' must take place.  Where the twisted ladder is uncoiled to look like a regular ladder by adding primers and reagents to the sample.  The sample is then heated and the weak hydrogen bonds are broken and the ladder-like structure splits down the middle making two single strands.  The mixture now needs to be cooled (called the anneal process).  According to Saferstein, a primer is added to the mixture which are short sequences of nucleotides, (pg. 270 Criminalistics: An Introduction to Forensic Science) that attach to the beginnings of the separated single strands of DNA.  This is where the replication process begins and complete copies of DNA are formed. The last stage is the extension stage where the mixture is heated again and enzymes attach to the complimentary base pairs of DNA (Adenine, Thymine, Cytosine and Guanine).

Here is my illustration of how this process works.

Preperation is key

As some of you may know, I am majoring in forensic science.  It is such a relatively new and fantastic field and I am so excited to be a part of it and extremely proud to be doing so well in it.  I have been looking for jobs in the area for when I graduate and I am so thankful that I will have a leg up on the competition, due to the experience and knowledge that I have/will gain here in the Biosciecne department.  As I look around my classrooms, I see all of the people that I will be competing against for jobs.  It is a competitive field, thanks to Hollywood's crime drama's like CSI.  I am certain that the experiments and daily functions that I preform here in the bio lab have prepared me well enough that in conjunction with my grades, I will be in shoe-in for a great career. 

This semesters project, Viral DNA in human genome, will solidify all that I have been working towards for the past 3 years.  The extraction, identification, and processing of human DNA is something that I hope to be doing on a daily basis when I finish here at PC and I will already have the background knowledge and the hands-on experience from here that I know, no one else will have .  I am really excited.  I have given a list of items to Matt to look into ordering and/or getting the recipes for some of the items that we do not have on hand in the lab, so as soon as it comes in, I can dive in to my experiment.  But for the time being, I am doing a lot of my research and setting up my work area, so that I can be as organized and effective as possible.

I'm going viral...viral DNA

Hello everyone!! 

I'm so excited to start off this semester in S-STEM, I learned so much last term and I have no doubt that this term will be no different.  I met with Josh and Matt and went through all of the topics and idea's that they have complied for STEM projects.  I was debating whether or not to continue my last project (The succession of pond water communities, as it was extremely interesting) but decided to venture out and do something new.  As I am a forensic's major, Matt and I looked to see what would best fit my discipline as far as real world applications and we happened upon "Viral DNA in Human Genome".  So, yes, I'm going viral and I can't wait!!

The basic premise for my study will be to extract human DNA (by way of buccal or cheek cells swabs) from different people with different ethnic backgrounds.  I will extract the DNA and plot my findings using gel electrophoresis, to identify the different genetic markers/traits that are held by different ethnicities.

So in the spirit of discovery and competition, I wish all of my peers good luck and happy findings for this semester. I look forward to meeting all of the new interns and to reconnect with all of my ol' STEM buddies. I can't wait to get past my research phase and dig in! 

Updated Bio 2013

Bio

Hi, my name is Jervana Goolsby and I am an intern here at PC.  I started my internship after my BIO 160 class with Amanda Chapman, in September 2012 and I have been given the opportunity to participate for a second term.

When I was a little girl my mother worked as a lab technician at the Toronto Hospital in Ontario Canada.  I remember going to the lab every chance I got.  I was fascinated by the atmosphere, the equipment and the experiments that took place there and I knew that when the time was right, I'd find myself working in the same atmosphere.  This was just a preview of what was to come for me.

Sad to say that my dream job was put on hold as I unexpectedly became a mother (which turned out to be another great moment in my life...twice).  But as motherhood flourished my dreams took a back seat.   A difficult circumstance came about with my daughter, who was 4 at the time, which made me look at my life and where I was headed.  At the time...I was headed nowhere a little too fast for my liking, time was slipping away and I knew that I had to do something more beneficial for my children and myself. So I decided to put my brain back to the test and enroll in school.  It is one of the best decisions that I have made in a long time.  I started my college career at the age of 30...better late then never I always say!

As the semesters went by, I became more and more confident in my abilities as a mother, student and peer mentor.  My grade steadily increased until I reached the status of Phi Theta Kappa and became a member of the prestigious Presidents club at PC for achieving straight A's, two semesters in a row.  I was also awarded the Wilma Ulrick memorial scholarship this semester, so I am finishing out my college career sure strong!
I am determined to be the best example that I can for my children and others around me.  It has been a difficult road for me personally but this internship has opened my eyes to my own possibilities, possibilities that I always knew were there but that had been suppressed for one reason or another.

I will be graduating at the end of this semester (YEAH!!), which is a great personal accomplishment for me and for my family as I will be the first one in my family to graduate from College.  I would like to thank all of my family, my boyfriend Tomas, my friends and all my teachers that believed in me and helped my reach my potential.  Also a special thanks to Amanda Chapman for taking a chance on me and giving me this opportunity.

I can't wait to see what project will be assigned to me this year!!