Molecular diffusion

First lane is the protein ladder which is used as a reference and to estimate the size of different proteins. Lane 1 in the green box contains cow serum which shows high mobility since it dyes all the way to the bottom with different bands through the gel. Lane 2 contained one dark band at the bottom of the gel. Lane 3 shows o dark band with low mobility through the gel. Lane 4 shows one band stained with medium mobility through the gel. Sample proteins 1-4 were separated through gel…

It is common to hear reports in the media of crimes that have been solved with theassistance of DNA analysis (Brown, 2006). If enough blood, semen or tissue is foundat a crime scene, forensic laboratories can determine the blood type or tissue type byusing antibodies to detect specific cell surface proteins (Campbell et al, 2006). Thismethod unfortunately requires large amounts of fresh samples and is not a strongsource of evidence as several people have the same blood or tissue type and thus…

Adult height is a polygenetic trait, which means that it is controlled by more than one gene. It is easily measured and highly heritable (h2 ~0.75- 0.9) (Kim, et al., 2010). Final adult height is the result of growth and development processes and has limited contribution from environmental factors (Weedon, et al., 2008). As a result, loci influencing height are compared and contrasted from different races. Genome-wide association (GWA) is a method used to quickly scan markers across genomes…

Introduction The group I would like to nominate for The ‘Carleton Prize for Biotechnology’ is comprised of three well-known scientists, James Dewey Watson, an American geneticist; Francis Crick, a British molecular biologist, and Maurice Wilkins, an English physicist and molecular biologist. The three worked together and achieved a significant impact on biotechnology in terms of the discovery of DNA structure (the double helix), and therefore they had been awarded Nobel Prize in 1962…

The Grim side of GMOs The ongoing debate around the world is, are genetically modified organisms, also known as GMOs, good for you and the environment? Research however shows GMO’s are bad for you, the environment and have had not enough testing. Imagine coming home, the whole day you've been waiting for that special treat in the fridge, nothing bad could happen from eating this treat on the outside, but inside your kidneys are slowly being destroyed and immune system weakened. These GMOs are…

DATABASES 1. Assembly Assembly database is needed to provide a systematic organization of genome. To accomplish that, the genome is fragmented into small pieces and is sequenced for many times to try to recreate the set of chromosome sequences. This database provides a unique tracker in form of accession so that users can identify changes to an assembly in precise locations whenever needed. There are two different types of assembly updates which are major release and minor release. 2.…

CRISPR is a technique that made genomic editing significantly easier. CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)/Cas (CRISPR-associated protein) is a RNA-guided nuclease for precise genome editing in diverse organisms. In 1987, when scientists were studying the bacteria's immune system, they discovered a pattern of short, repeating, palindromic DNA sequences separated by short, non-repeating, "spacer" DNA sequences (Figure 1). How CRISPR/Cas works in bacteria: As…

I began my undergraduate research career at the end of my freshman year, under Dr. Chase at Northwest Nazarene University. Inspired by the work done on the Human Microbiome Project, this endeavor sought to predict bacterial behavior using its DNA sequence. As this project was in its infancy, most of my research was focused into generating a workflow that could be used for this process, and scouring through literature for examples of laboratories that had done the same. This bioinformatics…

Just recently, scientists have found a way to spin synthetic spider silk, like Batman does. These Swedish scientists are Anna Rising and Jan Johansson. The two biochemists came together to study the natural ability that spiders undergo. The spider silk protein is similar to a lengthy chain, containing three parts. The longest part of the protein has pieces that repeat themselves. Randy Lewis, a biochemist, explains the long part of the protein as “stacked Lego blocks connected by springs. The…

Current molecular biology is being done by analyzing damaged DNA and by applying RNA techniques to forensics. Research is now being done with establishing useful markers on the Y chromosome. These markers on the Y chromosome would be especially helpful in sexual assault…