Researching!

Hi again!

So, I have a few minutes while waiting for a gel electrophoresis and an ethanol precipitation to write this post.

Like I said in a prior post, I am researching at Medical College of Georgia in Augusta! It's been really awesome so far. Last week, I had to give a powerpoint presentation to our lab group about my project that I researching this summer. It was very nerve-wrecking, but my mentor told me a did good job, so that made it worth it!

For my first part of my research, I am verifying a series of mutations found in patients with IHH/KS. So, I've been looking at a lot of chromatograms, identifying the single base mutations and designing primers so that I can repeat PCR and sequencing to make sure that these mutations are really there! I finally got a hughe shipment of primers this week! I've been working with them, making sure I have the proper controls with a series of controls we have in the lab.

The second part of my project has to do with NELF knockdown. A knockdown is when you, in effect, "knockdown" the representation of that gene, as though it was not there. You can knockdown genes with miRNA. My mentor is working on the knockdown. After we get a confirmed knockdown of NELF, I shall be observing the effects of downstream genes. This is to see if NELF is a transcription factor that hinders or aides the transcription of certain genes.

Well, my ethanol precipitation is almost done. I should get back to it and start the sequencing reaction!

Peace and love,
Lizzy