Molluscan Mysteries - studying Oysters and Cuttlefish

First Friday at 7:00pm online

Molluscan Mysteries: We aim to create the first immortalized cell line from a marine mollusk, namely Magallana gigas (syn. Crassostrea), the Pacific oyster. Our plan is to use CRISPR/Cas9 to edit the genes of oyster heart cells, knocking out p53 and Pten, two genes crucial to the regulation of the cell cycle. The loss of these tumor suppressor genes may allow the altered oyster heart cells to divide indefinitely in vitro. Accomplishing this will require us to learn a variety of laboratory skills and methods, including PCR, cell culture, electroporation, lipofection, cloning, and more!

THIS COMMUNITY PROJECT IS OPEN TO: all interested community members. Attendees must be middle school aged or older.

If you have experience with tissue culture, CRISPR/Cas9 transfection, marine biology, or general molecular biology, we’d love to talk to you!