Week 7 - Placement 1

This week Derek explained the project I would be working on over the course of the next 4 weeks. He took into consideration the areas which I found most interesting which were genotyping the DNA and look at neuropsychology. Derek then took me to the lab where I would be working with carol for the day.

In the Lab Carol explained how I would take 96 different samples and label them on an excel document and on a sheet. Then I would take a small sample of each individual sample and transfer them into a smaller container, using a pipette, which would be  used to analyse the DNA later in the day.

Different types of pipettes

Once I had finished labelling and moving the samples by myself, Carol showed me how to make up the master mix which is mixed with the DNA samples so that they can be read by the genotyping machine. Once I made this up, Carol taught me how to pipette 8 samples at a time. I first had to practise on water just to make sure I have the hang of it.

Pipetting 8 samples at one time

Once I had finished with this I sealed the dish and carol and I set up the genotyping machine up and made sure that everything matched the name of the sample that I labelled earlier. Just before I left Carol explained how she would hove to go and fine a mixing machine somewhere in the building in order to make sure that the mater mix was mixed in with the DNA samples. She would later activate the machine and would let it run for the 2 hours and then she would save the results and show them to me next week on work experience.