Hack-a-Taq, 6,7&13 April 2013
Swiss Meet-Up of the Hackteria network in Lausanne. Join us to discuss biohacking and DIY biology, help us setting up a new community bio-lab, have fun with self-made PCR thermocyclers and open-sourced Taq polymerases.
Contact: Sachiko
Objectives
1. test the Wild OpenPCR machine (gaudilabs)
2. hack the Taq isolation protocol from Open Biotechnology, and see if we can make and purify the enzyme with alternative reagents from the consumable reagents sold there (hackteria open source bioart…)
3. test out some PCR primers to detect E. coli (biodesign for the real world)
more on the wiki
Preliminary Results
Testing the PCR thermocyclers
We tested different PCR thermocyclers, a commercial T3000 and the two homemade PCRs made by Urs. We tested a sample of e.coli using a primer for the tuf gene, distrubuted the sample into all the different thermocyclers and let it run. Tested the PCR product both in a DIY gelBox and a lab grade setup. Turns out the WildOpen PCRs work perfectly! (seems dusjagr messed up the pipetting and added the ladder to the samples that were in the t3000… call it an inline reference 🙂
pOpenTaq transfection
We cultured some Rosetta e.coli strain in the teaching labs of EPFL. Seems our first try went wrong due to the fact that we added the ampicillin antibiotics to early after the transfection, so the cells werent ready yet to cope with it. Then we did another try and got the cultures growing nicely. Added the IPTG after we reached a good density of the culture and let them produce the Taq… Havent tested the product yet.
Impressions
“Swiss Meet-Up of the Hackteria network in Lausanne. Join us to discuss biohacking and DIY biology, help us setting up a new community bio-lab, have fun with self-made PCR thermocyclers and open-sourced Taq polymerases.”
From Hack-a-Taq, Lausanne. Posted by Marc Dusseiller Dusjagr on 4/07/2013 (20 items)
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this will be amazing! super cool prototyping work, very advanced!
I am curious to see if all protocolls work out.
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