User:Andy Maloney/Notebook/Lab Notebook of Andy Maloney/2009/08/19/Surface passivation experiment

Goals

• Polymerize new microtubules.
  • Need to make a new stock of BRB80T.
• Check to see if the kinesin is still active.
  • If not, get a new batch.
• Make a new stock of whole casein.

Experiment

Observe the gliding motility assay for:

1. [math]\displaystyle{ \kappa }[/math]-casein
2. whole casein
3. spin coated lipid substrate
4. silicone substrate
5. lipid coated silicone substrate

To do

Whole casein

So none of us has been able to get whole casein to go into solution. Casein exhibits amphiphilic behavior and will make micelles once it is in an aqueous environment. To try and make it go into solution, I will try putting it into a basic solution and if it goes in, I will then prepare the solution so that it has the components of BRB80 in it. Of course this will mean that the casein solution will have excess Na²⁺ ions in it and correspondingly more Cl^- ions when I pH it but, I will just have to check to see if it is okay or not.

First try: The first thing I am going to do before trying to change the pH is to try and heat up the BRB80 I have. Going with what Wikipedia says about casein not denaturing, I am going to crank up the heat to around 90˚C to see if it will go into solution.

• I washed an 80 mL beaker and rinsed it with 5 volumes of nano-pure water.
• I washed a thermocouple and a stir bar doing the same.
• I have 25 mL of BRB80 in the beaker and it is stirring at level 5.
• The heat is on and I'm sure it is going to take me forever to figure out how to set it such that it stays below boiling. Koch question: Can we get a new stirrer/hotplate that comes with PID temperature control?

The required concentration of casein needed is 0.5 mg/mL. This means I need 12 mg of casein. This is a pain to measure but it is my starting point.

Note: I totally forgot that things are going to evaporate.