How should I get strarted?

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Aspen Young

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Aug 26, 2014, 12:10:06 PM8/26/14
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I wish to learn everything I need to know to start working on the project I have in mind, which is; I want to work on genetically modifying small plants to display the trait of bioluminescence, or. Similar work around. I would appreciate links to books, videos, courses, equipment, anything that would help me better understand how to read DNA sequences and how to alter them.

Yuriy Fazylov

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Aug 26, 2014, 1:48:56 PM8/26/14
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where are you located?

Angel Regalado

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Aug 26, 2014, 2:12:46 PM8/26/14
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http://www.glowingplant.com/maker -------- I am saving up for this

Nathan McCorkle

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Aug 26, 2014, 4:44:30 PM8/26/14
to diybio

I recommend molecular biology of the cell here:
http://diyhpl.us/~bryan/papers2/bio/books/

Lots of intro info here:
http://diyhpl.us/wiki/diybio/faq/

On Aug 26, 2014 9:12 AM, "Aspen Young" <dashf...@gmail.com> wrote:
I wish to learn everything I need to know to start working on the project I have in mind, which is; I want to work on genetically modifying small plants to display the trait of bioluminescence, or. Similar work around. I would appreciate links to books, videos, courses, equipment, anything that would help me better understand how to read DNA sequences and how to alter them.

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Kato Spiegel

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Aug 28, 2014, 3:02:10 AM8/28/14
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Try to check coursera.org. There is a lot of free open courses about everything, include biology.

Aspen Young

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Aug 28, 2014, 10:25:44 AM8/28/14
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I am located in Salt Lake City Utah.

Aspen Young

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Aug 28, 2014, 10:28:12 AM8/28/14
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Thank you angel, however I personally interested in doing this from the ground up.

Aspen Young

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Aug 28, 2014, 10:28:48 AM8/28/14
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Thanks Nathan, I'll make sure to look into these!

Sebastian S Cocioba

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Aug 28, 2014, 12:40:46 PM8/28/14
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Hi Aspen!

Glad to hear you are interested in plants. Not too many plant people on the list so fresh faces are welcome. If you really want to start from the ground up, I would highly suggest learning and doing some plant tissue culture first. That is if you want a good understanding and confidence. Jumping straight into genetic engineering will leave many holes in your knowledge and skill set list. Ive been personally "mentoring" a friend off the list Alex Pfrogner with his plant based endeavors and he certainly picked up the skills quickly. Like most of us here, budget may be an issue. He managed to make a nice laminar flow hood of sorts for very cheap and began his adventures with decent speed. He may even chime in with some personal experience.

Basically you want to purchase some general lab equipment off ebay or hack some kitchen appliances to do the job.

A general plant lab would need as follows:

Glass or autoclavable plasticware, beakers, flasks, graduated cylinders, volumetric flasks, etc
Hotplate/stirrer (more important is the stirrer)
Autoclave or large pressure cooker (very very important)
Culture vessels like canning jars with lids or my personal favorite ketchup cups
Microwave
Fine tip metal tweezers
Scalpel blades and handles (i like #10 and 11)
Cool white fluorescent lights
Outlet timers
Water distilled and tap
Soil (personal fave is sunshine mix #1)
Seeds (i love tobacco but i can share others too)
Ph meter or strips (cheap meter with ATC or temp compensation will do well)
Light meter
Sterile air box or laminar flow hood (DIY or ebay) VERY important

Chemicals are as follows:
MS Media w/ Gamborg vitamins (phytotechlabs.com or plantmedia.com)
Sucrose (table sugar)
Agar (plant agar or health food store stuff)
MES buffer (for long term cultures and pH stability
BAP hormone 6-benzylaminopurine (shoot inducing hormone)
NAA hormone alpha-napthalineacetic acid (rooting hormone)
Antibiotics like augmentin (fish antibiotics is my little secret to cheap effective antibiotics)

If you want help starting, facebook msg or email me off list and i can advise on how to start. You can ask alex for an idea of the difficulty time investment, etc. im always glad to help a newbie. Good luck and dont give up!


Sent from my iPad

> On Aug 28, 2014, at 10:28 AM, Aspen Young <dashf...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Thanks Nathan, I'll make sure to look into these!
>
> --
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> Learn more at www.diybio.org
> ---
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> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to diybio+un...@googlegroups.com.
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Koeng

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Aug 28, 2014, 4:26:33 PM8/28/14
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I used this for producing hundreds of carnivorous plants at home. I tested it with the cheapest variety of sundew, Drosera capensis, and ended up bleaching my plants because I had too many of them. (It spreads like a weed, one flower and there are tons of mini capensis' in every single pot, I had more from that then from tissue culture)

I never got around to doing anything more complex, but I highly recommend their kit! Just make sure to collect lots of baby food jars.

-Koeng

Yuriy Fazylov

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Aug 28, 2014, 9:11:22 PM8/28/14
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Sorry Aspen Young. I thought I could unload my hard copy textbooks, if you were local.

Manpreet Gandhi

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Aug 30, 2014, 5:36:14 AM8/30/14
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I AM NEW IN THIS GROUP BUT I HAD A QUESTION REGARDING BIOCHEMISTRY THAT WHY WAS OR WHAT DRAWBACKS DID THE OLDER SYSTEM OF NOMENCLATURE OF ENZYMES HAD THAT THEY HAD TO REPLACE IT???

Manpreet Gandhi

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Aug 30, 2014, 5:41:29 AM8/30/14
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LETS HAVE A RESEARCH ON THE STEM CELLS AS I HAVE HEARD ABOUT THE VARIOUS DRAWBACKS OF IT SUCH AS HEPATOTOXICITY BEING THE ONE SO HOW CAN IT BE REPLACED??


Aspen Young

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Sep 2, 2014, 9:40:19 AM9/2/14
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Thank you so much! This was the exact kind of list I was hoping for and I'll take your advice to heart and start with plant cultures. I hope to talk to you again soon.

Aspen Young

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Sep 2, 2014, 9:42:18 AM9/2/14
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Thanks koeng, this website looks very helpful. :)

Aspen Young

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Sep 2, 2014, 9:43:23 AM9/2/14
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That's very kind of you yuriy, thanks for the offer sorry I couldn't take advantage of it.

Aspen Young

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Sep 3, 2014, 12:53:27 PM9/3/14
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Thanks Kato
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