My project will involve searching for the DNA of parasitic worms. Unfortunately, getting DNA out of the materials I'll be working with, soil and spirit-preserved worms, is not straightforward. So this week I've been learning how to extract DNA from something easier: duck poo.
My supervisor has several samples of duck poo in his freezer for a project looking at parasitic worms in birds. They'll eventually collect samples from across Europe and see whether the phylogenies of the worms are connected to the migration patterns of the birds. These initial samples were just to test that they could get parasite DNA from these particular duck species. So they could withstand the fairly cack-handed treatment that I was likely to give them! At least, I hope so. We haven't actually measured the results yet.
I ended up running thirteen samples through the complicated recipe of chemicals and machinery. The first few were supervised and, though we haven't yet measured any of the DNA, seemed to come out fine. We're going to measure the DNA from all of the samples in one go, so we put it in the freezer for later.
The second lot I did by myself on Friday, my first solo labwork since playing with Drosophila a couple of years ago. Everything was going well. I finished up and went out to call my supervisor, thinking we might have time to measure the DNA before the end of the day. But it was a bit late after all, so we cleared up and talked over the plans for Monday. Then I left.
It was about 22:00 when I realised I hadn't ever put that DNA in the freezer. Today (Monday), I discover whether it survived!
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