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Science

Recombinant DNA For The Home Hobbyist 87

Posted by timothy from the self-cloning-is-the-next-lesson dept.
Dr. Zowie writes: " Scientific American 's "Amateur Scientist" column this month tells how to amplify and isolate DNA chains in your kitchen, using the tried-and-true Polymerase Chain Reaction technique. Use it for massively parallel computing experiments; to ID friends, pets, and favorite houseplants; or to help eliminate epidemics. But what'll happen when enterprising teenagers start playing with plasmids and recombinant DNA?" I love articles that remind you that one of the ingredients it recommends playing with is a nasty mutagen. Interesting that PCR has become so common that all it takes is a hundred dollars and a dark room!
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Recombinant DNA For The Home Hobbyist

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  • O.K, so it's a fun idea and all, but i thought i'd clarify that the article is simply instructions on Amplifiying and Sequencing DNA, not changing or cloning people :) The two are just a little too diferent :)

  • Warning: patents ahead (Score:3)

    by jbuhler ( 489 ) on Sunday June 18, 2000 @12:15PM (#994653) Homepage
    The article neglects to mention that PCR is covered by several patents. For instance, here's the fine print from an advertisement for Clontech's AdvanTaq DNA polymerase:

    "Purchase of Advantage PCR reagents is accompanied by a limited license to use them in the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) process for research in conjunction with with a thermal cycler whose use in the automated performance of the PCR process is covered by the up-front license fee, either by payment to Perkin-Elmer or as purchased, i.e., an authorized thermal cycler."

    Roche holds most of the relevant patents on PCR, though they recently lost one of them as a result of a long, ugly lawsuit against Promega. For details, see this page [about.com] at about.com. Perkin-Elmer holds a bunch of patents on machines for performing the thermal cycling step.

    Fiddling with PCR in your own home is arguably an "experimental use" (i.e. you just want to see if it works) and therefore permitted under patent law, but don't make any commercial plans to Make DNA Fast.
  • So is anything posted that is at the least funny or informative considered a 'karma whore'?

    Who fucking cares, if the content is good?

    I'd much rather deal with people trying to get good karma rather than a bunch of boring, unfunny, and uninformative posts - or a bunch of people going around with the sole purpose of telling them that they're karma whoring.


    - Jeff A. Campbell
    - VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com [velocinews.com])
  • I would like to see some open source designs for some hardware to automate putting base pairs together. Then hook it up to a computer and have another team write a gcc- cross compiler that compiles genes.
    Step three is to write a really high level language so we could write a script such as:
    PromDate
    {
    Blond
    Blue Eyes
    5 foot 10 inches
    36-24-36
    }

    Feed it to the compiler and out come a set of chromosomes.

    Then no geek would ever be dateless to the prom again.

    As it is, the closest thing to this PCR I ever did was bake yeast bread. That took three tries because the first two times I killed the yeast when I made the water too hot.
  • When you say no one knows how it works, do you mean no one knows exactly how the plasmids are received by the bacterium? Or no one knows how F-factors signal for transduction? Or...?
    As far as I know, it's been worked out pretty thoroughly...

    On the offhand, this undergrad is on his way to publication. So don't underestimate us younger researchers. *wink 'n a grin*
  • Junior High students can do genetic engineering

    Several years ago my son, then 14 years old, took a summer course in genetics. The class performed recombinant DNA experiments on E-coli. The chemicals came from grocery-store shelves. The most sophisticated piece of equipment was the temperature control for growing the culture. I expect you could whip one up from a yogurt maker. The first step was to make the culture resistant to pennicilin (since that's so easy to test). The most difficult raw material to acquire was the starting culture of E-coli, already engineered so that it would not thrive in the human gut. I find this a bit scary.

  • For thouse who want to try this at home, drop in the local toy store and look in the "science" area. You may find a $10 kit to do just this.

    I've found most scientific supply places are a pain to deal with when you want something delivered to a home address. Sigma (out of St Louis) called me 3 times to find out why I was ordering $3 worth of tubing.
  • That's to make up for not asking why you wanted the anthrax! Just kidding
  • I'm waiting for someone to splice the genes for THC, cocaine, morphine, etc. into yeast, so you can brew up your fix in the privacy of your own home.
  • different specific weights--they stay in bands when they stop spinning--and no it does not make it pure in this method, as their tends to be a little recombination at the meeting of the bands--think choclate milk, before stirring
  • That commercial was very funny. Or at least it might have been, if it would have mentioned anything vaguely related to PCR!

    For God's sake, PCR has nothing to do with genetic alteration, it's just a simple tool for duplicating DNA. If you are going to make blanket generalizations about genetic engineering, don't try to insert some term that you don't understand the meaning of. If you knew anything about PCR even, you would realize that it is just using the natural enzyme (polymerase) to duplicate DNA, a process that occurs in your body in almost every cell.

    Or, you could just be pointing out how incredibly stupid and inept commercials can be at using snazzy-sounding technical terms, in which case, touche.
  • A nineteenth-century engraving of Charles Darwin and his Mini-Me?
  • PCR CAN be used for fingerpring. By pcr, you can generate large amounts of _specific_ areas of the DNA; this is determined by the sequence of the primers you use. This allows fingerprinting to happen in one step, if the primers attach to some highly repetitive region of the genome. It works on the same principle as the Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism technique for DNA fingerprinting, but requires much less starting material.
  • In such a case, it would seem to me that 'overrated' would be a better classification.

    Either way, if someone truly is karma whoring, then what exactly is being accomplished by telling them?

    You can't tell someone's intentions by the content of their post. Maybe they really are unfunny and mistaken? Those are observations that can be made without the 'karma whore' label (which seems to be attached to just about anyone but the people who use the label itself).

    Just my $.02


    - Jeff A. Campbell
    - VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com [velocinews.com])
  • Yep. It's Turner's (the mercenary) brother, Rudy (I've read that book way too many times). I don't remember it saying specifically that he played with genetic engineering but it was strongly hinted at that's for sure.

  • Uh, guys, I think I need some help here. I read the article and cloned myself, but now he keeps signing me up for mailing lists I don't want. Is it morally wrong to throttle your own clone?

  • Sadly, neither Nature, Biochemistry, nor The Cell have a "Forum" section.

    "Dear Biochemistry Forum: I never thought this would happen to me. But I was in the lab one night and I spilled acrylomide all down the front of my lab coat. Luckily the new lab assistant was there to run the thermocycler for me while I decontaminated..."

    Hm. It's just not the same.


    ----

  • Truth is often stranger than fiction.

    A while back a lab had grown several mice with luciferase/luciferin genes spliced into certain pigment-producing cells.

    Glow-in-the-dark mice. Some had glowing tails, others had glowing spots.

    Imagine having your own bioluminescent tatoos? (Glow sticks at raves would be a thing of the past, for one thing) Granted, you'd have to have had those spliced in at conception, but maybe you've had forethinking parents. Or maybe technology will overcome that sort of problem with some sort of vector that can be safely used in a tatoo ink.

    I just want a glow-in-the-dark mouse. Must be hell on their nocturnal cycles, though.


    ----

  • oops -yep -this is the bit that caught my eye though:

    " and I could dole out as little as five microlitres with only about 40% error"

    - serves me right for scanning through the text too fast

    NB - is that "i like your sig, btw" your sig? - that would be nifty..

  • Would you care to explain these political motivations?
  • never use your own tissues, it's just asking for trouble.

    This makes sense if you're doing tissue culture and infecting the cells with HIV in vitro or something, but I don't think there are any dangers in extracting your own DNA to use as a template for PCR. I use my own DNA for PCRs all the time. Fooling around with EtBr in dishgloves is much more dangerous.
  • Sorry, I didn't see the link in the article. That would certainly decrease the cost of it, but I still have to say that the thought of doing PCR without a decent thermal cycler or even pipettes makes me cringe. My real problem with the article wasn't even the cost issue as much as the fact that the person who wrote it obviously didn't know what he was talking about, and I think it would be a lot tougher to people to get this working in their kitchen than he implied. Anyway, I think it would be much more interesting if someone took this one step further and packaged a kit that actually DID something, such as amplify a region of DNA and test it for a restriction fragment length polymorphism ("hey Dad! You're predisposed for heart disease!"). You could sell some polymerase, dNTPs, primers, and a bit of restriction enzyme to test the product afterwards. You could even put a shrink-wrapped agarose gel in there so people wouldn't have to boil ethidium bromide solutions in their microwave.
  • As far as I can tell, he just hates Bob Gallo, the guy whose group first discovered that AIDS is caused by HIV (for those who don't know, Mullis and Peter Duesberg's whole thing is that HIV does not cause AIDS). Gallo is the guy played by Alan Alda in that ridiculous inaccurate "And the Band Played On" movie, if anyone's seen that. I've never met Kary Mullis or even looked at his data if he has any; this is just my impression from reading his web pages. I can't remember the URLs, but they're full of quotes like "People are going to know I'm right, as soon as they find out what an asshole Gallo is!" As far as Gallo, I could see why people would dislike him since he seems a little too politician. I've seen him around several times but never met him personally (yet I get gold-leaf xmas cards stamped ROBERT C. GALLO AND STAFF), but my boss and all the other faculty doing HIV stuff in my department know him really well and think highly of him. FWIW, the whole stealing data from the French thing was basically entirely fictionalized for the movie. As far as I can tell, Mullis's motivation seems to be proving that AIDS is caused by the use of amyl nitrite poppers, or ingesting semen, or a complex combination of retroviruses, or whatever they say it is now, as long as it isn't what Gallo and probably some other enemies said it was, HIV.
  • The next Steve Wozniak will be the person who mass-markets DNA computation for the desk top. It might look like a little gel bag with a few USB and video ports.

    Paul Di Flippo wrote a truly gnarly set of interconnected short stories that exptrapolate on the whole biotech revolution. It includes cyberpunk style DNA hackers -- Watsons and Cricks. The book is called Ribofunk.

  • Re:HS Biology Labs (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Transformation: inserting a foreign genetic information into E. coli... nobody knows for sure how it works, but there are several methods, and they all work well
    I don't think the transformation made the bugs immune, resistant to certain antibiotics (ampicillin, kanamycin, etc) is more accurate...
    Blue color is caused by x-gal, a sugar derivative, which when cleaved by beta-galactosidase (an enzyme that breaks down sugar chains into single unit glucose) becomes blue.
    My guess to why the transformation didn't work is that the frozen bugs have gone bad or the DNA is deteriorated. Transformations are so fool-proof that even undergrads can do it..

  • The "spin around" is known as a "centrifuge", and is a great way to seperate liquids. Try it on salad dressing sometime.

    Out of curiosity, how does one get the varying liquids out of a centrifuge once they have been seperated into bands? Do you skim them off, or what?

  • Well, lego has a few things that might make the accuracy easier. I was just looking through a catalog because I think I'm going to start to get into robotics via lego. :)

    • WORM gear - This is the corkscrew gear which you can run along the edge of a normal gear. Works as a handy dandy torque converter of doom, and if you can get the other bits pretty form against it, has the side benefit of only allowing the motor to work against the gears, not the other way around.
    • Rotation Detector - This mindstorms device, when coupled with a motor and some gearing, provides a servo - It knows to what degree a lego shaft (the generally black but sometimes red plus-shaped rods) is rotated.

    Okay, I started out doing a much longer list, and sort of flailed. And I know I'm offtopic, but heck, legos are just so darn cool. Anyway, I was thinking about something similar to this, and I decided you'd need four things to get high positional accuracy out of legos. Two of them are above, and the other two are lego blocks with a bearing inset for smooth, tight rotation, and metal drive shafts. If you have some good resistance behind it, those plastic shafts are definitely going to twist and flex, which you absolutely don't want.

  • Re:Automate this (Score:3)

    by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Sunday June 18, 2000 @07:36AM (#994679) Homepage Journal

    Naturally, you want your specifications to be written in XML.

    Amusingly, microsoft gave someone a bunch of money to develop a machine that reads and writes DNA. The big problem is the eighteen years the body has to sit in the cloning lab...

  • (just my $.02) But it's not that funny....PCR takes a small amount of DNA and makes lots more. Has nothing to do with DNA fingerprinting except in that you might use PCR to increase your sample size. So -- weak humor attempt plus lame OJ Simpson reference makes me think that someone was just going for some cheapo karma...
  • I wonder how long it will take for ditributed.net to come out with dna crunching clients?
  • ... and was pissed when I found the words on the box "Monkeys not included".

  • Use a micropipette (sp?)?
  • For those of you that are interested, you can subscribe to the BioHacking mailing list from my web page. This list is specifically for people into hacking DNA in their kitchens and basements.
  • Stuff like this sould only be given to professionals. Huh. Anybody ever read The White Plague? Frank Herbert. It's a mind blower. All we need is a goddamn scriptkiddie with a home chem set, an autoclave and a Klibold attitude. Thanks but no thanks. * *
  • You can thank prohibition and pressure from the DEA for that.

    Burris
  • So if you use the Lunn and Sansone method in California, you'll run fould of NOx emissions legislation...
  • Let me state I'm not taking sides. I wouldn't consider doing that until I've read and considered material from both groups, and I have not done that, nor do I have the training and background required to make a judgement. I only mentioned Mullis' opinions about HIV and AIDS as an example of the "underdog" in the academic community who may or may not be right, but is nonetheless crucial to the progress of science. And to remind people of the necessity of hard evidence to back up results, which is missing in a lot of today's "science". There are probably better examples than Mullis, but I wrote this in response to an article about PCR.
  • It says 'H is not a #', and probably looks screwed up cause I was drunk when I wrote it.
  • . .on a bloody knife I found in a dumpster in Brentwood CA. It identifies some guy named Orinthol James something or other.
    ___
  • ...simply because it is a rather interesting glimpse of our own reality through science-fiction eyes if you will. take for example, computers, or better yet, the internet. science fiction authors have discussed the same type of thing, and people read it and thought 'wow, that is neat, but i wonder if it will ever happen'.

    i may be getting confused in my old age, but didn't count zero by w. gibson have a hobbyist character who experimented with genetic engineering? looks like that is becoming a reality.

    all i can say is, cool. albeit scary at the same time.

  • My research partner (read wife) and I have been recombining DNA in for years. We even did it in the kitchen once, however, the bedroom is more suited to our techniques. So far the results look promising, but I'll keep you posted if there are any changes.

  • 40% error - only!

    yeah, yeah, I know, it's not important except for the price of it...

  • So, is this the first step of the new book How to clone a human in 23415 easy steps! Now there's a scary thought, you could have a whole cloned army of amueter scientists!
  • James?? James!! Quit amplifying your sister's DNA and eat your dinner! NOW, young man!

  • Money saving tip for Amateur Scientists (Score:3)

    by Guppy ( 12314 ) on Sunday June 18, 2000 @05:51AM (#994696)
    For those of you who might actually be compelled to try this at hope, here's a tip to save a little money. Scientific supply companies will frequently provide free samples for disposable equipment, like pipette tips or eppendorf tubes -- and there are a lot of scientific supply companies out there, so lather, rinse, repeat.

    I had a (poorly funded) professor who kept her lab going for weeks with freebies. Sometimes she even managed to weasel out some more expensive items, like a free sample of Taq polymerase.

  • SCIAM (Score:2)

    by cetan ( 61150 )
    In fact this entire issue of Scientific American is really worth reading. Discussion on life in the Universe, A huge report on The Human GENOME and the race to patent your body. Incredable stuff.

  • this reminds me... (Score:3)

    by fluxrad ( 125130 ) on Sunday June 18, 2000 @05:53AM (#994698)
    of a study done my several of my friends and I at our lab up in Boulder, Co.

    Basically, it was an experiment in the neural synaptic responses produced by the oral ingestion of Delta-9 TetraHyrdaCanabinol via several metalic media heated on an electronic thermal amplifier.

    results: when you smoke weed via the "hot knives" method...you get really fucking danked!!


    FluX
    After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network

  • PCR Commercial (Score:5)

    by Sempiternity ( 196039 ) on Sunday June 18, 2000 @05:43AM (#994699) Homepage

    This is just what we need, a way to rip our own DNA to shreds for the amusement of our selves, our children, and to the detrimental terror of our neighbors. I can see the commercial now.


    Bored with board games? Tired of those inoportune visits by your neighbors, relatives, and door to door salesmen? Well, imagine the fun one could have in creating a new life form. Use PCR to genetically mix your dog and cat. Use PCR to clone your children into the Eintstiens you have always wanted...

     <blatant plug> I used PCR to advance my genes beyond that of normal human beings, and now I have brain cancer from my enlarged frontal lobe. THANKS PCR! </blatant plug>

    Yes, that is PCR, create degenerate copies of yourself, advance yourself beyone the natural order of your neighbors. Create beings with supernatural powers...wake the dead, Your imagination is the only hurdle, Why don't you use PCR to do away with it?

    <blatant plug> Before I used PCR, I was the life of the party, and now I'm regarded by everyone I meet as an aberrant decrepit freak of nature. Before, I couldn't even get noticed by women, but the shrieks and cries I get as I walk down the street are music to my ears. THANKS PCR!</blatant plug>

    That is PCR, order NOW... only $19.95, plus shipping and handling. We are sorry no COD's.
  • Some instructions from the website:

    First, you will need some of your own DNA and several sterile Pyrex test tubes with rubber stoppers

    And how do I go about getting this DNA? Can I use this as an excuse in case my significant other catches me one night in the den?

    Significant Other: Honey, what the hell are you doing? Lotion? A videotape of 'Girls Gone Wild Part IV'??

    Me: Uhhh.. I'm just getting some DNA, baby. It's all in the interest of science, trust me.

    I mean, yeah, you could just extract some plasma but that wouldn't be fun.

  • Ah, some day we'll look back at the "good old times" ...
    When you could eat off of your genetic engineering tools ...

    When you could tell if that thing in the basement was alive or not by using a spatula ...
    When your two youngest children were more or less human ...
    When you didn't modify your household plants to fortify the structure of your house ...
    When your chromosomes were not patented ...
    So, what will it be like then? I'll tell you when I get there.
  • Twice - at the same time!
  • When I was an undergraduate in the late '80s I remember the big fuss when our university received its first PCR machine when PCR was viewed as a high-tech futuristic technique, much as microarrays are seen today. And now look at PCR -- amateurs can do it at home! I wonder if ten years from now microarrays will be cheap enough for amateurs to play with.
  • Out of interest, what is a microarray? I have visions in my head of a char array[NULL]; for some reason, but i know it can't be that :)
  • Mommy! Mommy! I just sequenced my DNA, and it doesn't look anything like Daddy's!
  • Tatoos and piercings are a thing of the past,

    DIY Devils horns, A "grow it/them yourself" hermaphrodite kit!

    The possibilites are endless!

    It could make the fetish scene even more interesting but do we really want a club full of Marilyn Mansons?

    Da Cr33p

  • Re:this is a waste of time (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Sorry--hit submit by mistake.

    This article is seriously a waste of time. Why would anyone want to sit around for 3 hours moving tubes from water bath to water bath like grad students did 15 years ago?
    All the supplies needed would cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars. A vial of amplitaq gold polymerase (the enzyme I use) alone costs $130. The dNTPS cost probably another $80, the agarose costs $100, the EtBr costs $30, the primers cost $40, etc. If someone packaged just the reagents you would need for a few PCR reactions together, it wouldn't be so bad.
    The reason why this would be a waste of time is because the article makes it sound a lot easier than it really is, and I can imagine how much work it would take to get this going in the kitchen, and in the end you will have only replicated something idiotically routine by lab standards. But if someone really wants to try this, a few suggestions: first, the first time you put the tubes in the 94C water bath, make sure you leave it there for about 5 minutes, not just 1 as on the remaining steps. Second, the temperatures of the water baths are critical. Don't let the first water bath get over 95C or your polymerase will degrade too rapidly. Make sure the second water bath is at EXACTLY the right temperature for the primers you're using, within 2 degrees. The third water bath is not as critical. Another thing, when you're making your DNA template from a cheek scraping, a few mls of water will probably be too much. Try several concentrations of template DNA. Also, the drop of mineral oil has nothing to do with damaging the polymerase when freezing; it's to prevent refluxing inside the tube. One other thing is that you should not try to add the MgCl2 to the buffer yourself if you're using a coffee stirrer instead of a pipette, but you can buy buffer with MgCl2 already in it.

    Optimizing the reactions can also be a bitch, but here's a URL to help with that:
    http://www.immunologists.net/sxprotocols/molbiol/p cr_notes.htm

  • This reminds me of Boris Vian's song, La java des bombes atomiques [umn.edu] , which described some amateur tinkerer making atomic bombs in his garage...

    (Quick English translation below for the french-impaired)...

    La java des bombes atomiques

    My uncle, a famous tinkerer
    used to make, as an amateur
    some atomic bombs

    Without ever learning anything
    he was a real genius
    when it came to practical works

    He locked himself all day long
    in his workshop
    to make his experiments

    And in the evening,
    he came back home,
    and explained it all to us.

    To make an A-bombs,
    children, believe me,
    it's really a piece of cake.

    The detonator question
    is solved is a quarter hour
    it's the one we put aside.

    And for the H-bomb,
    it's not much harder,
    but one thing bothers me,
    is that the bombs I make
    only have a action radius
    of only three meters fifty.

    There's something wrong there,
    I'm going back right now.

    He worked at it for days
    trying, with love,
    to improve the yield.

    When he ate with us,
    he wolfed down his soup
    We saw to his appearance
    that he fell upon a hard part
    but we dared not say anyhing.

    Then one evening, during the meal,
    here he sighs, and starts shouting:

    As I'm getting older,
    I see better
    that my brain is failing
    it ain't a brain anymore
    it's like béchamel sauce
    It's been months and years
    I've tried to increase my bomb's
    yield, and I never noticed
    that the only thing that matters
    it's the place where it falls down.

    There's something wrong there,
    I'm going back right now.

    Knowing that success will be close,
    all the great heads of state
    came to visit him.

    He received them and excused him
    that his shop was so small.

    But as soon as they were all in,
    he locked-them up,
    telling them be nice!

    And when the bomb went off,
    of those people nothing remained.

    My uncle, in front of the result,
    didn't chicken-out
    He played the dummy
    In front of the court
    Before the jury,
    he mumbled

    Gentlemen, it's a horrible bad luck
    But I swear in front of God
    That in my soul and conscience
    That by destroying those crooks,
    I am convinced of having
    Served my countryu.

    They were embarrased,
    So they sentenced him,
    then they pardoned him.

    And in reward, the country
    elected him head of the government.


    --
    Here's my mirror [respublica.fr]

  • Gee, if you need special warnings about chemicals for biological experiments then stay out of my garage. 10% of the writing in there must be warnings, including the labels under the hood of the car. [Say, does anyone have a link to the study about benzene binding to a protein in lab rat livers which is not in human bodies?] Not to mention how quickly a circular saw can alter your body structure...
  • I'm not sure it's such a good idea for Sci Am to suggest that individuals play with carcinogenic/mutagenic reagents at home. I mean, I am growing increasingly leery of all the shit I use in the lab (I'm a molecular biologist) and its cumulative effects on my body. I'm only 26 and I don't want to have flipper babies because I breathed in some fumes once or twice.

    That said, this is an informative article, because it serves to "de-mystify" the science of DNA manipulation. That's important because IMHO, a lot of the public's fear of this technology stems from not understanding it. Of course, that portion of the public probably doesn't read Sci Am...
  • OK people, this is serious: Ethidium Bromide is dangerous!!! Please do not try genetic experiments at home. Especially when children are around. There are strict rules in laboratories how to deal with this stuff. You can be hurt severely. In my opinion the whole topic of PCR at home isn't funny at all.
  • Why should this stuff be given only to the pro's?
    1) Who judges at what point one is expert enough?
    2)Since when are the pro's so responsable that you'd trust them? didn't a building fall down or something because of a faulty pentium 75 when it first came out? THAT kind of thing can happen by accident - what if you have a malicious (sp?) pro?
    3) How could you maintain even the image of a free market society if you began to limit the simple stuff (I call this simple because there are easy enough instructions out there and available parts, *I* don't understand it myself).

    Anyway, even before you Q1 - who would be holding this info back? anybody with a biochem degree could figure it out (I'm guessing) - it's not like this stuff is freshly out of some secret government lab. OK, so someone owns a pattent on some of the method, but that only covers MARKETABLE use. This might even be in last years "science year" for all we know. So Sci Am printed this recently, but how long has this kind of info been easily available from other sources?

    I'm raving a bit - sorry. I get rather excited when someone mistakenly thinks that holding back information - especially non-dangerous but highly educational information - can be to anyone's good.

  • Adsorption: You can adsorb Ethidium Bromide with activated carbon (Like the kind you use for aquariums).

    The activated charcoal will absorb the EtBr, but it should be pointed out that you still have to incinerate the charcoal to destroy it.


    Better. You can drop it in the aquarium and wait for the poli-eyed fishes to develop
    __
  • A fairly ubiquitous rule in all the labs I've ever worked in.

    Reason: Do you really want to provide a walking mobile human host that has all the same growth characteristics as the thing you're growing in a dish.

    Why do you think research labs pay people to donate samples of blood etc.

    I used to entice Med students in with promises of beer, unfortunately as they became older they started asking questions: "If this makes a million I'll get a cut, right?"

    Aks a neighbour for a sample, never use your own tissues, it's just asking for trouble.
  • Gibson's short story "Johnny Mnemonic" and novel Neuromancer take place in the same universe, and have some overlap (I seem to remember that Johnny is mentioned in Neuromancer, and Molly is an important charecter in both works). I believe there are some references to biological alterations in both of them (like the lo-tek's fangs, claws, etc), but they were more of the Chiba City sort, not things involving genetics.
  • Dear AC,
    I really like
    111111101101 => 0xFED (C) or FEDh (asm)
    or, in base 10
    4077

    Unfortunatly, 4077 also makes a nice
    PIN number...

    love,
    00110001 00110011 00111001 00101110
    00110001 00110110 00111001 00101110
    00110001 00110101 00110110 00101110
    00110000 00110101 00110010
  • ... when some teenager starts working on this and accidentally turns the Earth into a giant slab of gorganzola cheese :-)


    nuclear cia fbi spy password code encrypt president bomb
  • Out of interest, what is a microarray? I have visions in my head of a char array[NULL]; for some reason, but i know it can't be that :)

    Good one! But seriously, microarrays (or gene chips as they are sometimes called), allow the researcher to see what genes are active at any given time. To use a computer analogy, using microarrays is like using a debugger to see what is going on when the program is actually run. It's really cool technology, but it still is fairly rare because of the cost.

    If you want more info on microarrays, see
    http://www.gene-chips.com/ [gene-chips.com]
  • Well--

    Given that a microarray (glass slide method) is basically a glass microscope slide that has been treated by a few chemicals (takes a few mins with a few old glass jars as supports) and the real expense comes in spotting the array (needing a machine to accurately spot 40K spots on a normal microscope slide) it should be possible to do small arrays (a few hundred spots) at home. Then you need a reader which can detect the spots. Using old tech you could use radiation and xray film, then scan it on your normal PC scanner.

    Bingo.. instant home microarrays (but 200K for kit would get it done a lot quicker and more accurately.. wonder if you could build an array spotter from lego mindstorms..)

    ..d
  • Teenagers are inhaling paint thiner and now this! Now I can prove that the world WILL destroy it self. In other news, a 15 year old playing around with his own DNA, has grown 4 extra heads. Mean while 17 other deaths from teenagers tring to make there dicks bigger. I can see it now.
  • wonder if you could build an array spotter from lego mindstorms..)

    That's exactly what I thought when I first saw an array spotter -- it's just a robotic pipet, after all. Of course accuracy might be a problem :-)

  • coffee stirrers (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I'm a biochemist and I use these $250 automatic pipettors (they deliver volumes down to 0.2 microliters) and a robotic liquid handling workstation that really costs an arm and a leg in addition to a selection of other appendages. Coffee stirrers! I think we have been robbed. I would probably sue someone if I lives in the US.

  • In my biology class, we did a really interesting experiment with recombining DNA plasmids. We had a sample of "Class-room Safe" e-coli. (A supplier, can't remember the name, added a gene to make the e-coli require some compounds which aren't found in the human body). Of course, growing e-coli is fun in itself... but:
    We also had plasmids with a gene that made e-coli immune to one substance, and another which made it turn BLUE in another substance. We used recombinant techniques to add the plasmids to the e-coli.
    Unfortunately only 1 of the lab groups succeeded, out of about 10 - but apperantly all of them succeeded all the time for the past so-many-years, according to the teacher.

    Well, this doesn't have really much to do with Polymerase Chain Reactions (PCR method), which is, as we learned it, sort of like "mass-DNA-replication-in-a-tube", but it was fun...
  • Thanks for reminding me of the names. X-Gal, Ampicillin, etc. We were pretty sure HOW it worked: We used restriction enzymes to cut the DNA at certain locations, inserted the plasmid, and used the ligase enzyme (I /think/) to patch it up.

    I still can't remember the name of the supply company, though. I think it started with a W
  • ... why not try reading something by the inventor of the reaction itself, Kary Mullis? He wrote a book called Dancing Naked in the Mind Field, which is mostly just a large collection of stories, opinions, and anything else he wanted to put in there. As you should be able to see immediately, this guy is no ordinary scientist. As for the book, I loved it, and most of you probably would too. There's a lot of stuff in there that will make you challenge how you've been thinking about science, such as the chapter about HIV and AIDS. The whole thing is very not-politically correct, like the chapter on his experiences with LSD and related substances, and that makes it more fun to read. Pick up a copy, you won't regret it.

    the book at bn.com [barnesandnoble.com] - http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInqu iry.asp?isbn=0679774009
  • So you can amplify your DNA...

    I didn't realise mine wasn't loud enough.

    Here you go, my dear. What is it Ralph? 25 pounds of DNA. Uh, thanks, I guess....

    But seriously though, I realise that the Scientific American was for Bio/Chem/Biochem geeks, but what's the practical upshot of this? Seriously, why would you bother making a "backup" of your DNA?

  • I wonder what O'Reilly will put on the cover?

    Capt. Ron

  • Well, at least you'll have a date for the class reunion...

    --
  • cos its fun and it teaches you something. It may be routine for lab folks but it isnt for the average /. reader (who's not a biochemist). plus, more people working with DNA can lead to some serious breakthroughs, given enough time.
    A coupla $100K labs avaiable to the general public would be nice, but isnt going to happen. A few hours or days and a $1000 budget is ok for most /. readers working in hitech anyway...and tinkering is a natural reaction with most of us.
    they have packed most of the stuff together..check out the link at the bottom of the article.
  • There's a lot of stuff in there that will make you challenge how you've been thinking about science, such as the chapter about HIV and AIDS

    Kary Mullis may have invented PCR, but he is still a half-insane hallucinogen user with an ax to grind. I work on HIV, and I'm all for less popular viewpoints in science, but Mullis and Duesberg's theories on AIDS pathogenesis are purely politically motivated.
  • I'm feeling even older. My High School [co.edu], offers a course in Genetic Engineering. They use human cells. When I graduated (20 years ago) this would have been illegal (and probably immoral, expensive, and fattening)!
  • Here's some software to help design your primers. http://www.alkami.com/primers/refdsgn.htm Primers run about $50 a pop and will last about 10-20 rxn's, depending on if you're using a coffee straw or a PipetMan. Find em here: http://www.stratagene.com/pcr/pcrprimers.htm or http://www.lifetech.com You can also buy many reagents (phenol, chloroform, B-mercaptoethanol isopropanol, glycogen, NaAc, etc) relatively inexpensively, and do a decent DNA extraction.

  • Warning: Ethidium Bromide (Score:5)

    by Guppy ( 12314 ) on Sunday June 18, 2000 @06:42AM (#994733)
    Before anyone here tries actually running this, note that (as stated in the article), Ethidium Bromide is toxic and mutagenic. Ethidium Bromide is an intercalator, which means it binds itself to DNA in the spaces between base pairs (thus gumming up DNA replication). Small amounts can be disposed of down the drain, but you probably should neutralize it instead.

    Incineration: Ethidium Bromide can be destroyed by burning. I wouldn't advise you to just chuck it on a fire, though, but an incinerator should probably be fine.

    Adsorption: You can adsorb Ethidium Bromide with activated carbon (Like the kind you use for aquariums). I've heard that 100mg of activated carbon is sufficient for 100mL of Ethidium Bromide staining solution.


    Here are also two ways to destroy Ethidium Bromide chemically. One is uses reagents that are harder to get (but does a better job), while the second uses ordinary bleach (but the destruction is less complete).

    Lunn and Sansone method:
    Dilute solutions containing EtBr to concentration less than 0.05% w/v (50mg/100mL). Add 20mL of fresh 5% hypophosphorous acid and 12mL of fresh 0.5M sodium nitrite solution per 100mL of EtBr solution. After at least 20 hours, neutralize with sodium bicarbonate, then dispose of down the drain. Note that the sample will give off poisonous nitrogen dioxide during neutralization.

    Armour Method: Dilute solutions containing EtBr to concentrations less than 0.034% w/v (34mg/100mL). Add 10mL of fresh bleach for every 1mg EtBr. Stir at room temperature for at least 4 hours. The EtBr is converted to the physiologically inactive product 2-carboxybenzophenone, and the solution should then be rinsed down the sanitary sewer with water.


  • Methinks you wanted this [slashdot.org] article...
  • That must explain why they keep turning down your article submissions at sciam. Perhaps you should take a hint and submit to another publication.
  • Well, there are actully sevelral quite easy
    methods. But a hair with the the blob at the end from your head ( or someplace else ) would do.
    They you pour a some stuff on this a spin around ( really really really fast (think 10000rpm)).
    You could extraxt from your blood if you ain't afraid of needles. It's quite easy. Just mixes with a few substances.
    Or just pour something else in your mouth and out comes alot of fresh skins cells. Why from the mouth you may ask. Well...

    In any case semen would really be that god. Thrust me. Or don't.

  • ..to think what some people would do if they had the power to edit DNA.

    Scares the the shit out of me.

    Stuff like this sould only be given to professionals.

    Wait... On second thought.....

    -----
    If my facts are wrong then tell me. I don't mind.
  • Does this mean that the media's portrayal of reedy, pale, disturbed youth hacking your computer will fade away in favor of reedy, pale, disturbed youth hacking your genome? Or will these new hackers be strong and tan (being that they will be masters of genetic manipulation). That would be ironic, wouldn't it... alienated because you look like a jock...

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