• Question: What's your favourite experiment?

    Asked by Sasha Lily to Carolyn, Peter, Richard, Sara, Siana on 12 Nov 2015. This question was also asked by _jess_03, cheese, Dan, EM26, Afaf.
    • Photo: Sara Falcone

      Sara Falcone answered on 12 Nov 2015:

      Immunofluorescence!
      It consists in using antibodies that react with the protein you want to study. They you use another antibody that colors the protein (the two antibodies react together and that’s why you have color just on the protein you want to see). Then you look it at the microscope (because the proteins are tiny, you can just see them at the mocroscope) and you see your protein red or green or blue. It makes lovely pictures 😀

    • Photo: Richard Unwin

      Richard Unwin answered on 12 Nov 2015:

      Any experiment that works! I do like something called atomic force microscopy. Basically it’s a tiny needle a few atoms site at the tip, which moves ever so slightly as you pass it over the sample. It’s so sensitive you can see individual proteins and how they interact.

    • Photo: Peter Francis

      Peter Francis answered on 13 Nov 2015:

      Even though there is a lot of evidence to support the benefits of exercise for health, I still enjoy conducting exercise interventions which highlight the importance for different physiological systems.

    • Photo: Carolyn Nielsen

      Carolyn Nielsen answered on 13 Nov 2015:

      Since Sara has already said immunofluorescence… I really like an experiment called an ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay). This let’s you see what antibodies people have in their blood, which are part of the immune response to bacteria and viruses. Looking at what kind of antibodies people have tells you a lot about their past, which is quite cool.

      The ELISA involves taking a plastic plate with 96 small wells, then coating the inside of these with proteins from a specific bacteria or virus. You then add blood samples from different people to the different wells, and if people have antibodies to the bacteria or virus, then these will stick to the proteins in the wells. We can then detect these and tell apart people who have been infected from those who haven’t. It’s pretty straightforward but really interesting!

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