Lab Skills 101: Amplifying Genes by Polymerase Chain Reaction

Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is one of those basic techniques that has endless uses in the lab. PCR allows you to exponentially amplify a specific stretch of DNA  to the point that you have enough DNA to sequence it. It can be used to identify mushroom or bacterial species by DNA barcoding, amplify an interesting gene to make it a building block for synthetic biology projects, , or even mutate a gene to select for a more efficient variant. 

This will mostly be a hands-on session, so come prepared to get your gloves on!