Things to study

My application for post-graduate study have been approved. And my colleagues also found the nodavirus in Malaysia riverprawn, this means we can start our respective research anytime as we own the virus sample!
I have not ready yet... these few days i kept reading and studying these things---

DNA sequencing (pyrosequencing, chain termination method, chemical sequencing, primer walking, shotgun sequencing)
Mass spectrometry
Electrophoresis (gel electrophoresis, capillary electrophoresis, SDS-PAGE, 2D gel electrophoresis, affinity electrophoresis, temperature gradient electrophoresis),
Blotting (Southern, easthen, western, northern, dot blot, electroblotting)
HPLC, PCR, RFLP......

It's a new field to me. During undergraduateship, i did learn some of the concepts in a course called genetics. That's all. Now not only i need to know the concept thereotically, but also the practical steps on how to run it up correctly as well as the principle and rationality beyond these concepts.
Like we had learned the traffic law, but now we need to know how to drive and next, what makes a car run chemically and mechanically.

It really takes me a long time and enormous concentration to read. I need to fight with sleepiness everyday. May God give me wisdom and concentration to deal with the new challenge.

Gel Electrophoresis

There is a technique which you can always heard in the movies.
The scene always appear like this---
Man: (Anxious) How is the result?
Doctor: Calm down man. A good news for you, the child is yours!
And then the man sat back with an easy posture, thanked the doctor and left with a satisfatory smile.
If the result is reversed, the story will be totally different. It is the beginning of a sad story.

OR like this

CSI-type of background: Someone died. Blood and messy stuffs here and there. Cobs and forensic investigators came and take the evidences.
Scene turns to a laboratory. The shot moves towards a scientist, zooms in the light box in front of him. Zoom zoom zoom again. You will see this ---

These are the DNA bands on the gel.

If you want to play with it, visit here. If you feel lazy, just skip the following mind-burdening stuff.

If you want to continue, here you go~~

It is called gel electrophoresis, a technique not only used to identify the length of DNAs, but also RNAs and proteins.

Use DNA as an example. Since everyone has different structure of DNAs, so when these DNAs are cut with biological scissors (enzymes), they will break into different length. The basis of gel electrophoresis is to identify the different length of these DNAs of different individuals.

It is a DNA running race held on jelly stadium. The racegun rang when electricity swithes on, positive and negative charges are then generated. Negatively charged DNAs tried hardly to run to the positive ending point. Some tall and fat DNA always move slower than the shorter and slimmer ones. That's why you can observe the different bands of DNA running on the different positions on the blue gel as shown in the picture above.

The 'qq' feel of the gel makes me think of the jelly. Yummy yummy!

But don't eat that chemical jelly.