End of Week three!

Since my last blog post I have not been able to move forward from the equilibrium dialysis step. I have restarted back to square one twice since then. However, we are continuing to struggle with this step. On the last run we got one of the four samples to actually provide sufficient data so currently I am trying to run eight samples in order to get more sufficient data. I've also been heavily experimenting with running the centrifuge at different speeds to see if that could help optimize the data. I am also eternally grateful for professor Andresen setting up his centrifuge machine in our lab. This saves me from sprinting back and forth from the science center and Masters Hall a hundred times a day. When we switched machines however, I had to figure out the RCF (relative centrifugal force). Where two machines at the same rpm can provide varying forces on the things inside, RCF is constant between everything. So after switching machines I upped the RCF by about 1.5x per run, in order to see if this would yield better data. I could then run the supernatant or sample in  UV-Vis machine to see where both the gold and DNA was and had gone too. This allowed us to conclude that spinning at 3900 RCF was the best option for us right now. With my current eight samples that I'm using, I initially spun all eight of them, but spun four of them an additional time before taking the supernatant off and re hydrating. When we finally get data this should allow us to see which method works better. I have another spin or two to finish by the end of today but I am hoping to start Monday off with getting some great data!