purification

 

The problem with running a heavily networked life that spans multiple email addresses and filters delivered near instantaneously to handhelds and other devices:loosing password messes everything up. I had to frantically try to find my lost password at 3 am last night/this morning.

 

About three days ago our little diybio group participated in a little purification experiment that lasted multiple hours of sleepless concentration.

 

The experiment is based on the results of the previous session of diybio that involved transforming K-12 E.Coli by introducing GFP plasmid into the cells. The previous session was a huge success (had to be, with multiple biology people of advanced degrees leading the session under very controlled environment) and we finally obtained that mysterious gateway product, the glowing living cells.

 

The purification experiment refers to the process of purifying the noble proteins produced as a result of introducing foreign plasmids into a native cell. In this case we were trying to extract a purified essence of the GFP proteins produced as a result of introducing GFP plasmid into the living cell. 

 

The earlier steps of the session was an elaborate reproduction of the strawberry/etc DNA extraction experiment we did before, though this time we were using advanced tools and precision measurements under carefully controlled environment. It involved lysing the cells and then treating the end product (pellet) with variety of bonding chemicals to isolate the proteins from other inner organelles of the cell, centrifuging the resulting protein complexes for filtering them out of the cell innards and etc.

 

The resulting extract is a beautifully purified essence of GFP proteins in liquid format that glows green under ultraviolet light. From what I know this is the same process that scientists use to extract purified protein complex for x-ray crystallography (as demonstrated quite beautifully by the documentary Naturally Obsessed: making of a scientist). Proteins are based on codon sequences, which means that they are ordered structures though not necessarily in the same way as it is with RNA and DNA. One of the universal traits shared by ordered molecular structures is that they are susceptible to crystallization under the right circumstances. This process is also used for extracting protein products from engineered cells for pharmaceutical purposes.

 

It's rather amazing how simple the procedure is. Of course it would require some amount of study to fully understand the theory behind the extraction method, but the protocol itself doesn't require much in terms of prerequisite knowledge. DIYbio is born from the belief that majority of the techniques composing the biological sciences are simple enough for the laymen to execute on their own, and this session demonstrates the validity of that idea perfectly. It may not be obvious to some, but the fact is bunch of people who have no background in biological sciences (with help of a professional) succeeded in performing manipulation of living molecular systems to produce designer molecules and extracting them for further research. Who would have thought it?

 

The general atmosphere and execution of the diybio lab sessions are beginning to remind me of the workshops of the renaissance. People gathering into one place for vibrant pursuit of multiple areas of research, indeed the modern concept of hackerspace itself is an extension of the old renaissance contraptions reinforced with modern economy and technology. Am I going too far in thinking that the world itself is slowly edging towards an age of a new renaissance of humanities and technologies, freed from the monolithic research and industrial complexes that defined the late twentieth century? 

I would love to write more about this particular topic but I'm afraid my mind is rather dull this afternoon. Maybe I will return after a bit of outing to get my blood circulating again.