[Reu_journal] June 28

[Tracy fanous]

Thursday, June 28

All of my tadpoles survived the procedures from the previous day.  Good 
news, I thought at first.  However, none of the fluorescent images were very 
good--very few cells were transfected.  This is an indication that the 
voltage may be too low when I do my electroporation (and also explains why 
so many tadpoles survived).  Dr. Miskevich and I checked the voltage box 
with a oscilloscope and found that the voltage was not as strong as the 
voltmeter indicated because the batteries are apparently low.  So, Dr. 
Miskevich adjusted the voltmeter to a higher voltage and I did some more 
injections/electroporations/transfections to see how the adjusted voltage 
would impact the transfection.  Unfortunately, by the time I left this 
evening, it appeared as though all but one of the tadpoles had died.  This 
is an indication that the voltage must be too high.  So, it looks as though 
a bunch more experimentation with the voltage is in order.  I am hoping to 
have a great transfection so that I can get a 3-D picture of the brain that 
I can show for my presentation next week.

I am also quickly running out of my prepared GCAMP DNA, so I started another 
culture of the bacteria so that I can do another plasmid DNA purification 
next week.

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