Biohacking: *pledge drive* to set up the first gene detection experiments
Martin Dittus
after today's biohacking meetup we decided to prepare the first simple experiments to do gene detection. In total we're looking at about a £200 expense, which would give us enough materials for dozens to hundreds of experiments (depending on the particular item.)
Specifically we're interested in PCR followed by electrophoresis: using primers (marker gene sequences) to amplify (multiply) particular gene sequences; and then making the result visible in a gel tank.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymerase_chain_reaction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrophoresis
We can do all of this here at the Hackspace, and these are the building blocks for quite a few basic yet exciting experiments. E.g.:
* Detection of genetic modifications (GMO food)
* Detection of species ("lamb curry test")
* Detection of variants of species (e.g. detect known traits based on published gene sequences)
* We can also send the results to a sequencing lab to get data back.
Details & pledges here:
http://wiki.hackspace.org.uk/wiki/Pledges/Biohacking#Gene_detection_experiment
tom
On Mar 2, 10:08 pm, Martin Dittus <deks...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hey all,
>
> after today's biohacking meetup we decided to prepare the first simple experiments to do gene detection. In total we're looking at about a £200 expense, which would give us enough materials for dozens to hundreds of experiments (depending on the particular item.)
>
> Specifically we're interested in PCR followed by electrophoresis: using primers (marker gene sequences) to amplify (multiply) particular gene sequences; and then making the result visible in a gel tank.
>
> We can do all of this here at the Hackspace, and these are the building blocks for quite a few basic yet exciting experiments. E.g.:
> * Detection of genetic modifications (GMO food)
> * Detection of species ("lamb curry test")
> * Detection of variants of species (e.g. detect known traits based on published gene sequences)
> * We can also send the results to a sequencing lab to get data back.
>