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DNA extractions: the less glamorous but equally important part of our research

We are back in Boston and working on getting our coral samples ready to be sequenced.  We have a total of 361 samples that we will sequence.  This way, we will be able to characterize the bacteria on each one of these corals, and  learn a lot more about all the bacteria involved in causing white band disease.  To extract the DNA from the coral, we use microscopic magnetic beads.  These beads bind the DNA allowing you to extract it from all of the other components of the coral using the magnet below: 

So far, I have extracted 288 samples, and hope to finish the rest soon.  To extract 96 samples, we use 1,248 pipet tips.  It's quite a thumb workout!  Next up, we will run a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for each one of these samples, and then send them off for sequencing! stay tuned!

If you're hungering for some pretty images of the warm Caribbean, check out this video of corals spawning:

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/oceans-c...

Also, look at the write-ups of our trip and crowd-funding success (!) by the Smithsonian and Northeastern:

http://stri.si.edu/english/about_stri/headline_new...

http://www.northeastern.edu/marinescience/whats-wi...


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  • Tom Ruginis
    Tom Ruginis
    How are you purchasing the supplies? Did you set up an account as yourself or through a university? I'm curious if you're getting good pricing on the lab supplies.
    Oct 14, 2014

About This Project

If we understand what is damaging coral reefs, we can save them. White band disease is responsible for destroying up to 95% of two threatened reef-building coral species in the Caribbean. In spite of the devastating effects of the disease, a pathogen has not been identified. We aim to identify the cause of white band disease using infection experiments in order to develop methods of controlling disease outbreaks.
Blast off!

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