Every FBB student should clone a gene themselves!

Molecular biology workshop is held for 2nd year students

During the workshop each student of the educational programmes ‘Cell and Molecular Biotechnology’ and ‘Cognitive Neurobiology’ clones the gene of green fluorescent protein from the coral Clavularia sp. Students isolate total RNA, perform reverse transcription, PCR, and then they learn two methods of cloning: the convenient and frequently used T-vector and the popular GoldenGate, which allows efficient assembly of complex constructs. The final stage is the isolation of plasmids from recombinant colonies. The workshop is held at the Faculty's training centre at the Institute of Biological Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The teachers are Y.A. Makarova, Candidate of Biological Sciences, Associate Professor, N.V. Slobodova, Candidate of Biological Sciences, Associate Professor, R.V. Mungalov, Lecturer.  

Inessa Gonyan, 2nd year head student of the educational programme ‘Cell and Molecular Biotechnology’:

‘I was looking forward to the start of the practical classes, because it is usually the most interesting part of our courses: it is always nice to do something with your own hands in a real laboratory. And this time the workshop did not betray my expectations, because we do not just perform isolated tasks, but consistently, class by class, put on a full-fledged experiment. We constantly have to figure out why we are doing this particular step, why we got this result and what to do with it - in short, to immerse ourselves in the process as much as possible. But that's what I like!’