E. Techniques and BioBlogs

In the investigation I haven’t started the research per se but taking the time to learn the techniques to start it. A few of those have been the proper preparation of the cultivation medium (recently the same preparation of the medium but with antibiotic this time), the technique of Gram staining, the technique of purification of the line of hosts being used and other microbiology techniques. Apart from the investigation, our mentor Professor Carlos Ríos Velázquez has been giving small lectures of other techniques such as dilutions, PCR, cloning and the use of enzymes to the group of BioMinds of his laboratory. These techniques will help my investigation in the future when the real research starts but also will help my development as an undergraduate research student.

As part as the BioMinds group we have made our weblogs. The BioMinds students come from different universities of Puerto Rico but have the same purpose, undergraduate investigation. In this entry we visited three different blogs of other BioMinds students. The themes of my three chosen blogs were the determination of the prevalence of allelic variants of CYP2C19 *2 and CYP2C19*3 in the Puerto Rican population and test it with the Hardy –Weingberg equilibrium test, the study of the plant Cobana Negra or Stahlia monosperma and the process of polinization of the plant and finally the other investigation is interested in the control of gene expression at the post transcriptional level in eukaryotic cells. This experience was good because one has the opportunity to see the spectrum of the different ongoing investigations carried out by the BioMinds students throughout the five academic participating entities.