HIV Project Update

Ok today we recieved confirmation from Vrij Uni that we can go ahead with the project, so we are Very Excited!

We will be using he_la cells to culture over glass army figurines, as that is a technique i'm familiar with. There are two options we can go with for the visualisation of the infected cells. The first is to use a blue enzyme which can be seen in daylight with the naked eye. As Lot has not used this technique before she would prefer not to, unless necessary. The second and more favourable option to use is GFP he_la's. To visualise the infected he_la cells effecively however we need to access a transilluminator such as a Darkreader, rather than a straight UV light, which enhances the flourescence substantially, otherwise they will be quite difficult to see, as GFP expression in HIV is quite low. Above is what the Darkreader can do, so it seems to be quite a significant difference.

So right now we are trying to locate a transilluminator which can do this...