Molecular biology and biochemistry graduate student Jie Zhai (left) explains a scene for videographer Kai-Jie Wang Dec. 15 inside the Hingorani Laboratory. Wang works for the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE), a peer reviewed, indexed journal devoted to the publication of biological research in a video format. He is filming a project at Wesleyan titled “Application of Stopped-flow Kinetics Methods to Investigate the Mechanism of Action of a DNA Repair Protein.”Zhai and her peers use a KinTek-brand stopped-flow kinetics instrument to monitor the activities of DNA repair proteins in real-time. The JoVE video will explain how the lab uses the instrument so others can develop their own experiments on their own system. The equipment and film were supported by a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant awarded to Manju Hingorani, associate professor of molecular biology and biochemistry.Molecular biology and biochemistry major Christopher Doucette ’11 and BA/MA student F. Noah Biro also are featured in the JoVE video. The filmed experiments explain how they’re able to monitor a protein binding with DNA by using a fluorescent reporter molecule.Biro explains how a chromatography system works in the lab’s ‘cold room.’ Here, he purifies milligram quantities of a protein from E. coli host cells by ion exchange and chromatography. The JoVE film will be released in early 2010. (Photos by Olivia Bartlett Drake)
Olivia Drake
Andrew Chatfield
Ziba Kashef
Mike Mavredakis