Summer in the lab updated 07 July 2017

We are starting our synthetic gene expression experiment soon.  This will be to see if we can express a peptide in bacteria that has shown properties as an entry inhibitor antiviral.  It has been a long time getting to this stage of actually doing the wetwork.   Monday we prepared 14 amp agar plates.  

The open insulin project is also going on this summer and we are looking at expression in Pichia (yeast) after a few initial experiments with E-Coli.  This is an international project with multiple biohacker labs so if your  biohacker lab is interested in participating and developing methods for making better and cheaper insulin please get in touch with us. 
Check out the project: http://openinsulin.org/ , and here , and then leave a message here if you would like to join us (or have a bake sale for us to raise more money, as we are all volunteers but materials cost $).  

Update: 7 July 2017  
Here at Nenufar molecules for life we are waiting for the fedex delivery today of our gene of interest (VRBNCR-01) in the  pET 15b plasmid.  Last night we made 100mL of SOC, again, as our first batch appeared to be contaminated.  Tonight we'll start more media prep as the LB amp agar plates we poured are too old and the ampicillin is likely losing potency.  
Open insulin is working on size exclusion chromatography of the pichia pastoris expressing pro insulin (both inducible and constitutive expression constructs are being researched)  

Insulin Pioneers

After attending a meeting of biohacker scientists today doing research on methods to make better, more affordable insulin, we are looking back at the development of insulin and the birth of the modern biotech industry. Here are a few short film clips of interviews with Walter Gilbert and David Goeddel and other insulin related materials:

https://www.dnalc.org/view/15259-Cloning-the-human-insulin-gene-Walter-Gilbert.html

https://www.dnalc.org/view/15927-Isolating-DNA-to-make-human-insulin.html

https://www.dnalc.org/view/15088-Gilbert-s-approach-to-synthesizing-insulin-David-Goeddel.html

https://www.dnalc.org/view/16117-Close-but-no-cigar-Walter-Gilbert.html

https://www.dnalc.org/view/16118-Recombinant-DNA-David-Goeddel.html

https://www.dnalc.org/view/15088-Gilbert-s-approach-to-synthesizing-insulin-David-Goeddel.html

https://www.dnalc.org/view/15255-Producing-human-insulin-using-recombinant-DNA-Walter-Gilbert.html

https://www.dnalc.org/view/15257-Trying-to-produce-insulin-using-recombinant-DNA-Walter-Gilbert.html

https://www.dnalc.org/view/15085-Fierce-competition-to-synthesize-insulin-David-Goeddel.html

https://www.dnalc.org/view/15258-Government-restrictions-on-working-with-recombinant-DNA-Walter-Gilbert.html

https://www.dnalc.org/view/15087-Genentech-s-approach-to-making-insulin-David-Goeddel.html

https://www.dnalc.org/view/15086-Synthesizing-DNA-David-Goeddel.html

https://www.dnalc.org/view/15928-How-insulin-is-made-using-bacteria.html

https://www.dnalc.org/view/15929-How-insulin-is-made-using-yeast.html

https://www.dnalc.org/view/15084-First-steps-toward-making-insulin-David-Goeddel.html

Biohackers take on the insulin shortage

Podcast with Anthony Di Franco 

here



Interested?  Consider joining us online or at Counter Culture Labs in Oakland, CA USA

Open source insulin project - come see us tonight.

The open source insulin project, ongoing at SF Bay Area biohacker spaces Counter Culture Labs and BioCurious Labs will have team members at California Academy of Sciences Nightlife 6 pm tonight 9-8-16.  I hope to meet some of you there...ask around for Eddy.