PCR Success With Bifax DNA

Kris, Andrew and James did the first PCR runs on our extracted Fundulus bifax DNA over the past two days. Out of six samples they ran, two produced bands as evidence of amplification which is a good first start. They ran a slightly wrong program on the thermocycler with shorter extension times than works best, so I'm happy that two of six actually worked. So we're in gear. I also hope to get access to my research funds soon; I went to a training program yesterday morning that fizzled because the university computer system was down, and the training software was unavailable. The trainer, who works in University Procurement, graciously told me he'd give me a tutorial on it since he knows I only need a small part of their overall training. With my own money available we can avoid embarrassing things like borrowing 5 microliters of DNA ladder from another lab who asked Kris to sign it out in their chemical logbook. We should probably just give them a dollar and be done with it, but who am I to say.

I've started to set up a 55-gallon tank in my lab. It fits nicely with the 20-gallon already there. I hope to have fish in both sometime soon...