Late night work at NYCR

Being ever hardworking, we are spending tonight at NYCR getting through some much needed management stuff and blogging. Who said science isn't cool?

BioArt NY - First Meeting

Dan and Nurit from our group went to check out the first meeting of BioArt NY at 11th Street Bar this Tuesday. Much fun and biology was had by all. Stay tuned for further updates as we work with the awesome bio artists in the city!

NYCR DNA extraction night

Cheers!

Thanks to the wonderful people at NYC Resistor, we are now doing our weekly meetings and workshops at their space (almost) every Wednesday. Here's a brief record of what we did for our first night at the space.

The night's event was a straight DNA extraction affair, except that we were doing it using cheek cells from our own body (our previous attempts were done using fruit). The protocol is about the same. While we didn't use household materials in extracting DNA this time (instead we used chemicals that came in fancy looking bottles) the ingredients are more or less the same.

We are using Gatorade, lysis solution (it's just a detergent ingredient-wise), and ice-cold alcohol.

First, we start with Gatorade to wash our mouths for one minute. After that, we spit the contents into plastic tubes and mix it with lysis solution, shaking it throughly. Then we pour cold alcohol into the mix, a highly complex operation that needs all the concentration and control one can muster.

Make sure to pour it down the wall of the tube, so you don't disturb the contents. If you're successful, you'll end up with...

The white stuff in the middle contains DNA from our own cheek cells! Some of us made a small necklace containing our own DNA, which is just plain cool (or crazy).

We were also joined by some wonderful people from the Sciencehouse who came to check out our operation. Hi guys!

Protein purification night at Dan's

Hi everyone.

It's been a while since we've uploaded anything to this blog owing to much changes and projects that we were (and are) working on. We'll be updating the blog shortly with news of what we've been doing all these days, but here's something to tide you guys over.

We held a protein purification workshop a while ago with some of our fellow members. The process itself was a simple exercise using GFP producing plasmid containing E.Coli cells

(prepared before the event itself, since introducing plasmids to E.Coli cells take a while and can't be done in a single night session). Afterward we tried to run the plasmids on gelboxes, one of

our own design and the other one sold commercially.

Here are some of the equipments we used.

While there were a few mistakes during the course of the lab, the purification of the protein itself went along swimmingly. We did have some real issues with running the gelbox though. The trials and tribulations of the commercial and DIY gelbox will be documented at a later date with pictures and possibly a video (when I'm not writing past midnight).

DNA: Everybody's Favorite Party Favor!

Well, yesterday DIYbio NYC took ConfluxCity by storm. Or maybe by goo.

The day started out auspiciously, with the Tompkins Square Greenmarket giving us a primo spot on Avenue A to set up our DNA Extraction Party table. We laid out all our supplies- dish detergent, plastic champagne glasses, salt, meat tenderizer, etc.- on our bright green table with a cool poster of our logo in front. The day was sunny and perfect for DNA-making.

There was an amazing amount of foot traffic in the park that day. The DNA extraction process seemed to fascinate people of all ages and cultures. Of course, there was the woman who asked if our oven mitts (in case the alcohol was too chilly to hold) were for sale. And the one who walked away in disgust when she found she couldn't drink the final product...

Whatever gave us the idea that our sign would explain what we were doing? 95% of the folks who stopped to look asked "What are you doing?" and when we replied "extracting DNA" the second question was always "Why, what can you DO with it?" The answer they seemed to like best was "test it to see if the fruit was genetically engineered". The second most popular answer was "if all the strawberries on earth were wiped out, you could recreate them with what's in your little test tube- just like Jurassic Park but without the bloodshed". Yes, we brought microfuge tubes so they could take their DNA home as a souvenir.

DIYbioNYC hosts hands-on DNA extractions at ConfluxCity 2009

Explore the blueprints that underlie life in NYC’s urban public spaces. Join DIYBio at the greenmarket in Tompkins Square Park to extract DNA from locally grown produce!

DIYbioNYC will be presenting this playful DNA Extraction party as part of ConfluxCity, an event to be held throughout New York on Sunday September 20th, the final day of the annual Conflux festival.

When: Sunday, September 20th from 1:00-3:00pm

Where: Tompkins Square Park (E. 7th Street & Ave A)

From our flyer:

"Imagine exploring New York from the inside out. Most of daily interactions with the city take place in the psychological space that starts from the self and extends into the human-scale world. But there’s an invisible puppet master behind life in New York—one that creates the whole but remains out of sight, too small to see, locked behind our clothes, our skins, even the membranes of our cells. Imagine putting on special set of glasses that enlarged the tiny and shucked away the quotidian. Imagine going to a Tompkins Square Greenmarket, but instead of seeing people doing their daily fruit and vegetable shopping, you saw a schematic for the fruit, the plant that grew them, the lineage of plants before it, even the pathogens it fought along the way. You’d be seeing the world through DNA.After buying some produce at the market, visit our outdoor lab at the SW edge of the park. With some common household objects, and a little guidance from our citizen scientists, you’ll extract the DNA from your produce, and see your food, your life, your daily routines from the inside out."

From the Conflux website:

"Conflux is the annual New York festival for contemporary psychogeography, the investigation of everyday urban life through emerging artistic, technological and social practice. At Conflux, visual and sound artists, writers, urban adventurers and the public gather for four days to explore their urban environment."

"People from a wide variety of backgrounds and cultures come together at the festival to re-imagine the city as a playground, a space for positive change and an opportunity for civic engagement. The Village Voice describes Conflux as a 'network of maverick artists and unorthodox urban investigators… making fresh, if underground, contributions to pedestrian life in New York City, and upping the ante on today’s fight for the soul of high-density metropolises.'
From architects to skateboarders, Conflux participants have an enthusiasm for the city that’s contagious. Over the course of the long weekend the sidewalks are literally transformed into a mobile laboratory for creative action. With tools ranging from traditional paper maps to high-tech mobile devices, artists present walking tours, public installations and interactive performance, as well as bike and subway expeditions, workshops, a lecture series, a film program and live music performances at night."

This promises to be great fun. Hope to see you all there!

Sorry it's taken so long...

..but only one person (Nurit) managed to capture video of the completion of the lab experiment where we transfected E. coli with a plasmid containing the GFP gene. And I had to get it from her in order to make the Part 2 video. So here it is, finally:

For the next lab-type meeting we decided to use another Carolina kit to purify the green fluorescent protein from the transformed E. coli and visulize it with black light and via electrophoresis. So we are slowly building our repertoire of standard molecular techniques...

Anyone who has an interest in this sort of stuff is welcome to stop by our meetings and get all nerdy with us. And Dan always seems to have none but the best brands of beer on hand.