iGEM of UBC

Learn why Shing is UBC iGEM. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-8kq2R1rds

Learn why Rafael Saer is UBC iGEM. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xbBH6rE4iI

Learn why Alina Chan is UBC iGEM. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEoybL-QN7w

This year’s iGEMers have just returned from their trip to the iGEM Jamboree held at MIT over the past weekend. Stay tuned for more updates on the next journal club session or ice breaker, when they will be introducing the club and competition for the 2011 season!

Step by step guide to extracting your DNA from your spit

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Materials Required:

• 1 Shot glass
• Several Drops of Dish Soap – must contain sodium laurel sulfate
• 1 pinch of salt
• Contact lens solution OR meat tenderizer OR pineapple juice (optional)
• Ice-cold 120+ proof liquor (that’s 60% plus – Bacardi 151 should be sufficient)

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Step 1: Spit into the shot glass

-Rub the inside of your cheeks and rub your tongue around. Try and fill at least 1/4 of the glass with spit. This is harder than it sounds!  Think about bacon.

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Why are we doing this?

Spit contains cells from your mouth and cells contain DNA.   This is the same DNA that is in every cell in your body (except for those pesky microbes that are all over the place).

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Step 2:  Add the dish soap

- Mix it around gently

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Why are we doing this?

Dish soap causes the cells in your spit to lyse (aka die, break open, explode).  Once they lyse, the DNA is released into the spit, just waiting for us to find it.

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Step 3: Add Contact Lens solution, Meat Tenderizer or Pineapple Juice
-Give it a gentle stir

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Why are we doing this?

All three of those ingredients contain protease – enzymes which break down proteins.  Since we just lysed the cells, everything in them is floating around, including proteins.  To help extract the DNA we will break down some of these proteins using protease.

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Step 4:  Add the pinch of salt

- Give it a gentle stir

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Why are we doing this?

DNA is a negatively charged molecule.  To help it precipitate we add salt (which forms Na+ and Cl- ions in water).  The Sodium (Na+ ions) will be attracted to the DNA.

This is important because we are trying to gather a large amount of DNA in one place.  If they are negatively charged they will repel each other.  If the negative charge is matched by a positive charge (the Sodium ions) it will make it much easier for the DNA to gather together.

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Step 5: Fill the rest of the shot glass of alcohol

-You must be VERY careful in this step to pour the alcohol on TOP of the spit and not let it mix.  You can do this by pouring it down the side of the glass very gently and slowly.  Note: you must have steady hands, so no drinking the alcohol beforehand.

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Why are we doing this?

DNA is very insoluble in alcohol, so the DNA at the surface of the spit precipitates out.  As this happens, DNA deeper in the spit solution gets drawn up and also precipitates.

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Step 6: Look at it!

- In the alcohol you should see a white cloudy mass, this is your DNA.  Apologies, you cannot actually see the helix.

You’re done!

Reference: http://www.instructables.com/id/5-minute-DNA-Extraction-in-a-Shot-Glass/

The iGEM 2010 forum is up and running! Please join the discussion and share your thoughts.

Objective: Create an engineered bacteriophage that eliminates Staphylococcus aureus

To achieve  our objective we have divided the project into 6 tracks that will be pursued in parallel:

1. Biofilm- observe Staphylococcus aureus biofilm growth under lab conditions so we can characterize effectiveness of our engineered phage

2. DspB- extract the Dispersin B gene from A. pleuropneumoniae  so we can integrate into the phage genome

3. Phage- develop standard protocol to manipulate the phage genome in a simple and well-defined manner

4. Quorum- characterize the existing P2 biobrick part

5. Modelling- model the interaction between s. aureus biofilm, phage, and relevant molecules in the system, to supplement our wet lab experiment

6. Human Practices- gather feedback from public opinion of synthetic biology

We have decided our project this year: biofilm degradation! Thanks to those who participated in the discussion last week and it was a close race. With an awesome team we have this year, we will use this week’s JC time for them to further discuss and develop the biofilm idea, but all are welcome to participate!

Congratulations to everybody who made it onto the 2010 UBC iGEM Team! The club execs wish you all a year of accomplishment and success – do us proud!

Thanks a lot to everybody who applied to be on the UBC iGEM Team! Applications to be on this year’s team are closed, and the selection committee will be interviewing candidates to assess their suitability to be on the team. The team roster will be finalized and submitted for registration by the 31st of March 2010 (which is the registration deadline). Please check back later for further announcements.

In the meantime, this Wednesday will be an Ideas Discussion meeting, so please come prepared to discuss the ideas put forth thus far. If possible, some faculty members will be present at the meeting as well to go through the ideas as well. Please bring your laptops if you can (so that you can access the wiki while at it).

Other than that, keep checking back for the latest research articles on Synthetic Biology!