Hi all, my name is Lukas. The Metalab was recommended to me by my friend Juli („Juli wie August“) as a place to develop and share ideas. Right now I am sitting in your main room for the first time, typing up an idea that might interest some of you. I am a biology student currently working in a group doing research on on the generation and analysis of proteins involved in plant meiosis. We know what (some of them) do, but we have never seen it “live“ – And I have an idea to change that. I am seeking help in designing and cutting a flow cell for TIRF microscopy. If anyone is interested in collaborating on this idea with me, I would be very grateful and happy. Attached you will find a screenshot of the prototype. If anyone could spare some time for advice in cutting and design and is interested in the project as well as a beer/dinner/whatever on me, please contact me! Cheers, Lukas More Infos: The „state of the art“ is applying the proteins to investigate at the lab bench and then going to the laser microscope. The Problem: Those proteins work fast – less than five minutes. When I arrive at the microscope, the reaction is already finished which makes visualizing/filming it rather hard considering sample preparation takes up to 3 hours. This is where the flow cell comes in. With this system, we could prepare the protein sample in the microscope itself – visualizing meiotic strand exchange in real time for the first time in history! Some vocabulary: Meiotic Strand Exchange is the exchange of DNA between two chromosomes in the generation of sperms/eggs --> The stuff that makes every human unique! https://www.yourgenome.org/facts/what-is-meiosis TIRF (Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence Microscopy) is a niche laser microscopy technique, being able to visualize single molecules linked to a glass plate. https://www.microscopyu.com/techniques/fluorescence/total-internal-reflectio...) A flow cell is exactly what it sounds like: A cell stuff flows through. In our case, the glass plate to investigate would be rubber cemented on the bottom of the cell so it can be looked at with the laser.
