Dr. Jennifer Weller @ UNC Charlotte

Olympic B3 Science Summer Camp 2013 Biotechnology, Biodiversity and Bioinformatics June 13^th - June 28^th
Sponsors and Needs
The activities of this camp could not be carried out were it not for the support of a number of individuals and organizations. Our THANKS to the Following: NC Biotech generously provided a grant in support of the lab activities in both the summer and fall.This has allowed us to buy some of the needed equipment, supplies, reagents, and disposables needed by the students. 2011/2012 American Soybean Board - the GetBiotechSmart program 2011/2012 Union Power Cooperative - the Bright Ideas program In 2011, the Carolina Medical Center allowed us to select from equipment that was being replaced in their research labs, and donated some plastic tubes and pipettes, which allowed us to make more strategic use of our grant money. In 2011, Greiner Bio-one supplemented the supply of tubes and tips, and has generously allowed us to come back to them several times for assistance. In particular we would like to thank our contacts, Dr. Rafal Persinski and Ms. Mackenzie Farone for visiting the lab and seeing us in action. Dr. Weller has provided equipment loans and supplemented materials where the class supplies fell short.
Our 2013 List of One-time needs (equipment) Refrigerated benchtop centrifuge with rotors for 50ml, 15 ml and 1.5-2.0 ml sample tubes (such as the one from BioRad) Bench-top autoclave, big enough for flasks of growth agar and media (VWR example is ~$5,000 without educational discount) A water-purification system to produce molecular-biology grade water (such as Barnstead NanoPure systems) Small microwave oven - for lab chemicals only (cannot use one that would be used for food) Insulated safety gloves to use with hot solutions Vortexer with tube attachments (like the VWR Genie) Standardized ice buckets (2 per bench) - we are using styrofoam boxes but in many cases the standard tube racks do not fit Test-tube racks for PCR tubes Squirt bottles for solutions Stock bottles for buffer and solvent storage.
List of Disposables - ongoing needs every year: Marking pens, labelling tape Writing pens and lab notebooks Printer to print out protocols and things like gel images to put in notebooks Bench Kote or other lab surface protection paper Weigh boats/paper and spatulas to use with the balances Kimwipes or equivalent lint-free lab wipes Disposable lab coats (4 sizes, small, medium, large and extra-large) Serological pipettes (1,2,5,10, 25ml) Nitrile lab gloves, disposable, 4 sizes Micropipetter tips (1000, 100, 10 ul size) Agarose for gels Acrylamide, bis, TEMED and Ammonium persulfate for gels TBE buffer for gels Loading dye for gels DNA size standards for gels Enzymes and associated chemicals for DNA and RNA work (Taq polymerase, T4 DNA ligase, DNA polymerase I, Reverse transcripase, RNAase H, restriction enzymes, the buffers, dNTPs, NTPs, ATP, NADH, BSA) DNA, RNA and protein purification kits and solutions (such as columns for Qiagen) that allow us to avoid the use of phenol and chloroform Molecular-biology grade reagents, including NaCl, KCl. NH₄Cl, ammonium acetate, MgCl₂,magnesium acetate, EDTA, Tris-HCl and Tris Base, SDS, Tween, formamide Molecular-biology grade ethanol Molecular biology grade isopropanol Sequencing reagent kits (this could be Sanger or PGM Next-Generation chemistry, Dr. Weller has both platforms in her lab). Cleaning supplies: paper towels, lab detergent (e.g. Alconox), gloves, sponges in sufficient quantity to clean thoroughly
Funds for Discretionary items - many scientific organizations provide grants only for equipment, or only for supplies, and only for a specified period of time. Not all chemicals have a long shelf life, and students must also be fed and transported. Donations for the following would be most welcome. It would be ideal if we could set up a lab fund or charge-card source (with Mrs. Smith or Mrs. Anderson as designated payer) to purchase things like: PCR primers from IDT which has charge cards (which are not expensive but do change with the project and so cannot be detailed ahead of time) With an enzyme supplier, such as BioOne, New England Biolabs or Promega, for enzymes and associated reagents (these mostly do not have more than one-year shelf life) Micropipetter calibration (annual) Equipment maintenance Buses for field trips to collection sites. Lunches for field trips, snacks during the summer camp, food for presentation days. We are not sure how to manage this as yet, but would welcome assistence from parents or local businesses who have some experience doing this.
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