20.109(F12): Online cloning lab and defense

We're excited to partner with LateNite Labs to offer a virtual environment to run the 20.109 DNA engineering experiment we are performing in Module 1. Why do the lab within a virtual environment when we're running through the lab in the physical space as well? Well, for one thing, it may help to see the connections of the day to day work we do. When the experimental steps are days apart, as they have to be in the physical lab, it's awfully easy to lose track of why we're doing one step or another. Here you can run a few days of lab in just a few hours! Another reason we like this virtual environment is that it allows you to simulate many different runs of the work--and actually see the results you'd get in the physical lab! In other words, you can make "virtual" mistakes and see how they'd come out in the lab. Finally, this virtual environment will show you parts of the lab that we don't have time or capacity for everyone to do in the physical lab. Here you can pour the gel or make the solution you need, rather than have them done for you by the teaching faculty...and so in that sense this is a more "real" view to the work you'll do when you leave our 20.109 class!

So, if you're willing to pilot this effort with us, we're excited to hear what you like and what you don't.