Question: What is the most advanced thing you have learnt through out your job of microbiology?

Jordan Kirby answered on 5 Mar 2019:

Oh boy theres alot to choose from! Id say the most advance thing would be the genetic engineering work i do, where i modify small circular pieces of bacterial DNA with genes (bits of DNA that code for somthing) that i want to express (a process where a cell uses the gene to make stuff) and produce in large quantity. Usually this means i have to insert this modified DNA into a bacteria species like E.coli which i then mess around with to force it to produce loads of the thing i want!
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Depending what i want to produce it can be quite complex for a multitude of reasons.
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A little bit ago i took a human gene which coded for somthing called lipocalin-2 (which is a protein our bodies produce to reduce bacterial growth in our body) and then modified it so a bacteria could read it (bacteria are hella smart and know when scientists are putting weird DNA into them so we have to modify it so it appears more bacterial).
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I then grew up my bacteria untill i had billions ans billions of them, then i squashed them all with a huge hydrolic press (same pressure of an elephant standing on the area of an m&m). Then did some more sciency stuff to purify my protein(this bit is pretty boring and complex so i wont bore you with it) and finally ended up with a pure sample of human protein which is now being used for further experements!
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Really good question by the way! Hope this all made sense (if not comment down below on anything you would like to know more about/questions you have!) ☺