I think that this quote is fitting seeing as we are all hitting midterms and we are really into the "meat and taters" of the semester...that said, putting the time and effort into S-STEM sometimes seems like the cherry on top of the cake that is on top of the pile of books, the mountain of papers, which is on the TI-84 calculator, on the beaker full of acetone, which is balancing on the broom. But it can be done....trust me.
I am running another experiment this week in order to collect my DNA and run my PCR. I am going to enlist the help of Anil to do so as he is the resident PC PCR expert (toot toot!!). Once this is completed, I'd like to get one of my fellow STEM buddies to do a salt rinse so that I can collect their DNA. I would really like to do a comparison to see what STR's that we may have in common. STR stands for "Short Tandem Repeat", it is an analysis is a relatively new technology in the area of forensic science, which many of you may know is my major, and it is very up and comming. It has been recently identified as “genetic fingerprinting.” Results from this analysis are most often used in the identification of a suspect in a crime. These results are input into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) for matching purposes. CODIS is an FBI-funded computer database, which stores the DNA of convicted sex offenders, convicted murderers, certain felony offenders and other criminals. So if my volunteer fits any of these categories....you may want to rethink giving me your DNA!! Kidding, I'll be keeping it off the FBI database, I promise.
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| www.le.ac.uk |
STRs are short sequences of DNA, normally of length 2-5 base pairs, that are repeated numerous times in a head-tail manner, i.e. the 16 bp sequence of "gatagatagatagata" would represent 4 head-tail copies of the tetramer "gata". The polymorphisms (variations in DNA sequence between individuals) in STRs are due to the different number of copies of the repeat element that can occur in a population of individuals. (Criminalistics: An Introduction to Forensic Science, R. Saferstein)
Any takers????
To Jervana:
ReplyDeleteHi, my names Alex and I'm one of the new S-STEM Scholars this semester and it's my first time in this program. We have not met yet but hopefully we will in the future and work together if I am chosen as an intern. Your experiment sounds very interesting and I would be happy to donate some of my DNA for your experiment. Forensic sciences is a very interesting major to choose and was one of my top majors to choose to pursue but I decided to go for Biomedical Engineering but maybe do forensics sciences as a minor. Anyways good luck with your experiment and if nobody volunteers I will gladly do it.