TRAIN Scholar Sierra Lewis' Blog

Hello mates! We are nearing the end and the feeling is intense to say the least. This week Josh help me run the results in the computer to get my results logged to see each gel mold deposit clear result. The results were intresting if I do say so myself even with the hiccups along the way that still did not deter the strong results I ended up with. One of the major Tortilla chip brands stated there is no GMO in their blue corn chip however my results show otherwise. Also, a local store brand tortilla showed GMO in their NON-GMO yellow corn chip. I was pleasantly impressed that the hummus from Whole Foods did pass the the NON GMO test that was amazing since I do eat it in my real life often. To conlude most of the food tested passed with no GMO in sight which was a delight to see.

Hello mates! I have came back after a stressful test in ochem. I am so close to the finish line I can feel it but yet the assignments keep me blinded. All I have to do is turn in all these assignments and do amazing oon this final exam and I will be in the home strech do achieving my goal of graduation. I will continue to hang in there with the help of my fun oulet my project. After letting my DNA samples for each food product sit after 48 hours I (with the help of Josh and Chris) prepared gel molds to run a PCR test to detect Plant and Other source GMO primers in my selected food products (shown other blogs). Now, it was time for the real magic to happen. We placed our sealed tubes into a machine called a thermal cycler. This machine heats and cools the tubes in a specific pattern, causing the DNA to copy itself over and over again. It's like a DNA copy machine on steroids. Once the PCR was complete, we checked to see if we got the results we were expecting. We used a technique ...

Hello mates! This week I was not able to progress with the procedures of my project so I just focused my attention on my Ochem homework (which was a a lot in itself) and my paper. I am excited for the end of the semester however this time of year always brings me much stress and sleepless nights due to all the assignments due and test preparation that I must do. O chem has been my worst nightmare and I am too excited it is coming to a close very soon but this nightmare will end with a happy ending of me passing and applying for graduation in the fall (cross fingers). For now I will keep pushing along working on my paper since I have spoke with Josh about publishing my paper for this project to add to my resume for grad school. Here is a snippet please advise of any improvements you see fit

Welcome to another fabulous week mates ! I started perfoming the procedures of my experiment and everything went smooth for the most part ! I did not run into any major hiccups perfoming my experiment thus far since I have only completed a portion of my project up until this point. Perfoming the DNA extraction this week was very eventful itself to say the least. It was alot of little things that made this experience one not to forget. First I had to grind all my food products making them easy to be pipeted into mircocentrifuge tubes which sounds a lot simpler. It took arm strength but I got the job done (pictures below to prove it).