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Freiburg Science Fair - Inspire the Public for Science

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  Preparations

• 

  Explaining

• 

  Take a look at DNA

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  Presentation

Excited children, curious tourists astonished over the magic of DNA wrapped around a piece of wood

On a sunny weekend in July, our team was offered the opportunity to inspire the public for synthetic biology at the local annual Science Fair. In the heart of Freiburg's old town center we explained the code of life: DNA - the genetic information of each and every cell.

The DiaCHIP Game

For our DiaCHIP-Game we broke down our diagnostic device into a wooden board with magnets. A falcon containing paper-clips represented the patient's blood sample. Children as well as adults could get to know and test the basic principle of our diagnostic tool: antigen-antibody-interaction. This binding event was visualized by the paper-clips sticking to the magnets. As the clips stuck to different magnetic spots on several wooden boards the wanna-be doctors just needed to match the signal symbol to the corresponding antigen from a list of several diseases. After successful diagnosis the doctors were rewarded with gummy bears.

Isolating DNA

While giving curious visitors the possibility to extract DNA from bananas and tomatoes, we illustrated the importance and ubiquity of this fascinating and small molecule that governs all our lives. People of all ages and different backgrounds were fascinated by the simple experiment at our iGEM booth. Attracted by flasks with colorful liquids everyone passing by took the time not only to visualize DNA but also to learn something about synthetic biology, iGEM and the DiaCHIP.

On-stage Interview

Both, the game explaining our iGEM project and the simple experimental introduction to genetics, were very popular among the visitors. Since our booth was constantly overcrowded, we were rewarded with an on-stage interview right in front of the main entrance of the famous cathedral of Freiburg. We appreciated the chance to advertise iGEM and our project.

Extracting DNA from Fruits

Here we provide a simple protocol for DNA isolation from fruits:

Materials needed:

• Lysis buffer:

  • 5 g NaCl
  • 50 ml dishwashing detergent
  • 450 ml water
• 70% - 99% ethanol (ice cold)

Workflow:

• smash 1/2 banana with a fork within a beaker
• add approx. 25 ml of lysis buffer and stir until you get a more or less homogenous solution
• filter the solution (coffee filter) into a new beaker to get rid of the crude cell fragments
• put 1-2 ml of the filtered solution into a test-tube
• slowly pipet the ice cold ethanol into the test-tube
• two phases of alcohol and water are formed with precipitated DNA being visible in the alcohol phase
• it can now be spooled onto a toothpick or something similar