13 February 2020
By: Juan Ayala and Quinlin Lammers
Being in the Brain and Behavior stream has started becoming fun and interesting. In the past couple of weeks, we have been practicing doing PCR protocols with positive and negative controls that have been pretested and following those up with a gel electrophoresis protocol. This allowed us to experience first at hand how PCR and running a gel really work, and we even ran an image to see the bands from our gels. It is important that we get good practice from these and pipetting because these are procedures we will need to know how to do for a very long time especially if we will continue to pursue research.
This week we chose the gene that we wanted to research and study about. The genes we pick from are associated with green anole lizards, we are trying to see what genes are important in reproduction during different seasons; breeding and non-breeding. We picked Tryptophan Hydroxylase 2 also known as TPH2. This gene is known for controlling the rate of biosynthesis of serotonin. Serotonin is known for being a hormone and a neurotransmitter. After picking our gene we then continued to design our own specific primers for our TPH2 gene. After following the protocol and looking into databases to figure out which primer sets are best compatible with the gene, we found 3 primer sets. The information of the primers was then sent to Dr. Cohen, and then this last week we have started working with our primers, and we performed our first PCR with our primers. It didn’t go as planned because after making our master mixes and then separating them into PCR tubes, when we went in to centrifuge them it all spilled, and we had to remake and redo our master mix and our PCR.
In conclusion, our labs have been rough, the research has been difficult, and we’ve had a few mishaps on the way, but the way we think of it, this is a learning experience. RISEbio has provided us a research opportunity like no other. We can do activities in our desired career that usually take way longer for other people in our career to be doing. Sure, it is tough, and sure we’ve made mistakes, but it is a learning experience. When you fail once, you get up and try to learn how not to fail next time. In short, RISEbio is our start to becoming the intelligent and respected scientist in our future.
