A Butterfly and Biotechnology

Hi readers, It feels so good to write here, after a long (so long, in fact) gap. How are you all doing? I’m doing great, did you know, I have now joined M.Tech (Biotechnology) in Anna University, Chennai. And, after 20 years of life under the warmth of my parent’s wings, I have finally managed to spread my own wings, out of home. Yes, I have come out of my kutty (small) town, to a big city – Chennai. It feels good in one way but the other? No! It’s not feeling so good the other way. After coming here, I have realized that I was away from the so much polluted world for 20 years. This place, because of tremendous industrial development and stuffs, is polluted extremely, that you should cover your head, face, hands, foot, literally, all your body parts except eyes to keep you clean and safe from the poisonous, dusty, dirty air! Ah, forgot, you should wear big coolers to protect your eyes too. Sometimes, it feels like there is not more than 10% of O 2 in the air! Villages, towns – Rur...

I don't know why, but, I really love this guy! :P Yes, he is PCR! You ask me anything, like, what technique we can use for introducing mutation? what for diagnosis? I'll answer PCR for all! :P Let me talk about him for sometime here. PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) is used for amplifying any gene from a given sample using Taq polymerase, dNTPs, Primers and buffers. After PCR the amplified product or amplification is generally checked by running an Agarose gel electrophoresis. But, in case of Real Time PCR there is no need for running gels as the progress of the PCR is monitored online with the help of fluorophores. Generally SYBR Green dye, Taqman or molecular beacon probes are used for Real Time PCR. In SYBR Green method, the fluorophore binds with the double stranded DNA and produces fluorescence, and hence as the amplification increases, fluorescence increases, but the fluorophore has no specificity and hence, even if the amplified product is not the product of your inter...

Knock Out mouse is a genetically modified mouse in which a particular gene is removed or inactivated. As a particular gene (which encodes for a particular protein) is inactivated, the mouse shows changes in external features or physical and biochemical characteristics.  The first recorded knock out mice was produced in 1989 for which Martin Evans and Oliver Smithies were awarded Nobel Prize. The various reasons for producing knock out mice are ·        To understand the function of a gene ·        To understand various diseases which are due to alterations or mutations in genes ·        It gives an idea for understanding and treating various diseases ·        To develop and test various drugs produced Some of the diseases which are widely studied using mouse models are neuronal diseases like Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer...