Lab Lore

This page is intended to serve as a centralized collection point for all those otherwise unwritten tips and tricks that we learn from more experienced labmates or from painful trial and error.

Red Food Coloring: Is it Fluorescent?

We added some red food coloring to all the dna we prepared for the iGEM 2007 part kits (1500 parts) to aid the process of visually confirming that 3uL had successfully been deposited in each well of each plate by our automation. Unfortunately, the presence of the dye seems to disrupt sequencing reactions.

I will post some absorption and emission plots of the dye and the three others it came with. The food coloring is from McCormick and the box is labeled Assorted Food Colors & Egg Dyes. The main ingredients are: Water, Propylene Glycol, FD&C Yellow 5, FD&C Red 40, FD&C Blue 1, FD&C Red 3, and 0.1% Propylparaben.