Team:UCSF/ALHS Project1

From 2013.igem.org

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<h4><br>Choosing the foods</h4>
<h4><br>Choosing the foods</h4>
<p2>We chose to use a variety of food, including fresh soy beans, tortilla chips, Fritos corn chips, papaya and a organic corn snack that claims it is made from an ancient variety of corn. We tested some foods that were labeled “non-GMO” and some that weren’t labeled at all.<br> </p2>
<p2>We chose to use a variety of food, including fresh soy beans, tortilla chips, Fritos corn chips, papaya and a organic corn snack that claims it is made from an ancient variety of corn. We tested some foods that were labeled “non-GMO” and some that weren’t labeled at all.<br> </p2>
<h4><br>Testing</h4>
<h4><br>Testing</h4>
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<p2>We crushed up samples of each food  up with a mortar and pestle, while adding small amounts of water to make a slurry. We then placed each sample into a microcentrifuge tube containing InstaGene, a chelating agent that helps to remove metal ions. We have to use this because it ensures that the PCR will be free of metal ions. After adding our samples to InstaGene, we shook the tubes and placed them into a 95°C water bath for 5 minutes. Afterwards, we centrifuged them for 5 minutes at the maximum speed, and then refrigerated them.<br> </p2>
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<p2>We crushed up samples of each food  up with a mortar and pestle, while adding small amounts of water to make a slurry. We then placed each sample into a microcentrifuge tube containing InstaGene, a chelating agent that helps to remove metal ions. We have to use this because it ensures that the PCR will be free of metal ions. After adding our samples to InstaGene, we shook the tubes and placed them into a 95°C water bath for 5 minutes. Afterwards, we centrifuged them for 5 minutes at the maximum speed, and then refrigerated them.<br>
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<br>The next day, we removed the samples from the refrigerator and placed them on ice. We added all of the essential ingredients for PCR into a PCR tube, in addition to DNA from the samples we had centrifuged the previous day. After mixing the contents of the tube, we placed them into the thermal cycler. Finally, we used gel electrophoresis to see if fragments of DNA that would indicate that the sample is a GMO were present in the samples or not.
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Revision as of 13:34, 28 October 2013

Human Practices: Lincoln High School Outreach

A common misunderstanding held by proponents of organic food, is that once genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are incorporated into our food supply, they will become undetectable, and cannot be differentiated from other foods. To educate their peers, students in the Biotechnology Academy at Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco offered to teach their fellow students in the school’s ecological Green Academy how to test for, and recognize, genetically modified food ingredients. Additionally, we taught our peers about some of the beneficial real-world applications of GMOs.

Our educational program included a pre-learning survey, direct instruction by our biotechnology teacher, George Cachianes, and a series of three lab exercises in which the iGEM/biotech students taught the Green Academy students how to recognize genetically modified foods using common biotech lab techniques. Afterwards, a post learning survey assessed the knowledge of the Green Academy students to see if their attitude and knowledge about GMOs had shifted.
A pre-lab survey measured the Green Academy students'knowledge of, and attitudes toward, genetically modified food. Before the lectures and lab activities, the majority of the student had heard of genetically modified food crops (77.8%) and could identify corn as a crop likely to be genetically modified (66.6%). 85.2% of the students felt that GMOs should be labeled. About half of the students (48.1%) said they would avoid eating GMOs (66.7%) and would pay extra to avoid them (18.5%). After the unit, one student said he learned “that a lot of what we eat is genetically modified”. Another echoed that statement, “I learned that a lot of the food we eat are made from GMOs,” and went on to explain, “I also learned that we can check if they contain GMOs by a process that we learned in this biotech class.”

In search of two genes

In order to find out if GMOs were present in common, every-day foods, such as tortilla chips and papaya, we tested these common foods for the presence of two genes: CaMV35S, which codes for a promoter, and NOS, which codes for a terminator. We specifically looked for the presence of promoter and terminator genes instead of the actual functional genes themselves because the functional gene may vary from organism to organism, depending on what qualities of the organism are being altered. In order to determine which of our samples were GMOs and which were not, we used some very common lab techniques including Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), which amplifies a certain piece of DNA.


Choosing the foods

We chose to use a variety of food, including fresh soy beans, tortilla chips, Fritos corn chips, papaya and a organic corn snack that claims it is made from an ancient variety of corn. We tested some foods that were labeled “non-GMO” and some that weren’t labeled at all.


Testing

We crushed up samples of each food up with a mortar and pestle, while adding small amounts of water to make a slurry. We then placed each sample into a microcentrifuge tube containing InstaGene, a chelating agent that helps to remove metal ions. We have to use this because it ensures that the PCR will be free of metal ions. After adding our samples to InstaGene, we shook the tubes and placed them into a 95°C water bath for 5 minutes. Afterwards, we centrifuged them for 5 minutes at the maximum speed, and then refrigerated them.

The next day, we removed the samples from the refrigerator and placed them on ice. We added all of the essential ingredients for PCR into a PCR tube, in addition to DNA from the samples we had centrifuged the previous day. After mixing the contents of the tube, we placed them into the thermal cycler. Finally, we used gel electrophoresis to see if fragments of DNA that would indicate that the sample is a GMO were present in the samples or not.
The goal of our exhibit was to provide relatable information about the general techniques scientists use every day in the laboratory. We presented brief “elevator talks,” broken down into two topics to more clearly present the information to the public. The first talk explained the Central Dogma of Biology, where DNA is transcribed into mRNA, and mRNA translated into protein. The second elevator talk was about the execution of transformation in molecular biology and the basic experimental concepts, while also giving real life examples of how it is used as an application. In addition to our presentations, we gave away synthetic biology informational bookmarks and scientific temporary tattoos, and brought culture plates with E. coli transformed with GFP and RFP for visual demonstration of transformations in cells.
The UCSF iGEM team interacts with patrons at the Exploratorium: After Dark event

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