Basic: Microbial Investigator
Registrations Open!!!
Microbial Investigator: DNA-based species ID (formerly called Molecular Biology for Beginners workshop)
Short Description: Use molecular biology (DNA extraction, AGE, PCR and BLAST) to identify microbes from their DNA
Type: Hands-on
Duration: One day (9.00 AM- 5.00 PM)
Fees: INR 2596 (INR 2200 + 18% GST)
Category (for payment): MBY Workshop Tier 2
Aimed at: School (Class IX-XII) and College students
Application Process: Click here for the details
Registration form (This link will be different for each workshop)
Application process (in brief)
Check the above table to figure out whether suitable dates are available or not.
Note down the category of the workshop.
Head to SB Collect to pay the fees. Save the Receipt and the SB Collect Reference number. See here for details.
Fill the above Registration form using the Receipt and the SB Collect Reference number. Choose the workshop date. You will get an email acknowledgement from us. Registration is NOT yet complete.
We verify your payment and send Registration Confirmation Email. Your registration is now complete.
We strongly encourage the applicants to look at the detailed application process before paying the fees and filling the form.
Workshop Modules
1. Basic laboratory practices
Basic safety precautions, handling of micropipettes and safe disposal of laboratory wastes. To know more about how to handle micropipettes, watch this video or or practice using this simulation. .
2. Extraction of genomic DNA
In order to identify organisms, or extracting the genes of interest, the first step typically is to extract all the DNA from the given cells/tissues. To know more about DNA extraction read this article.
3. Agarose Gel Electrophoresis (AGE)
The extracted DNA is checked using AGE confirm whether the extraction has happened properly or not. To know more about gel electrophoresis, you can either read this article or watch this video.
4. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)
Often a specific gene of interest needs to be isolated from the entire DNA and the simplest way to do this is using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) which amplifies the number of copies of the gene of interest. To know more about PCR, you can either read this article or watch this video.
5. BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool)
Once the gene of interest is obtained and sequenced, it is compared to the known gene sequences using the bioinformatics technique of BLAST. To know more about BLAST, you can either read this article or watch this video.