Tanvi Govil, our Graduate student, spent this past August at the Lanzhou University in China learning “Gene Knockout” in the research lab of Professor Xiangkai Li, Department of Life Sciences. During her 1-month lab, she learned not only various aspects of routine molecular biology experiments but also a sophisticated suite of techniques for manipulating DNA to produce ‘knockout’ strains, by taking advantage of homologous recombination (where sections of genetic material with similar sequences are exchanged between two strands of DNA). Besides, she could also learn concepts related to “Cell Surface Display” and “working with RNA.” Overall, she has had a significant number of benefits and takeaways from this research internship.
Tanvi – Personally, this short visit to Professor’s Li Lab was a great opportunity to learn about the work that is done in a different lab and in the Institute itself. I am very much Thankful to Dr. Huawen Han, Aman Khan, and Apurva Kakade, for being so helpful throughout my stay, and making me learn. It was a wonderful research experience, that provided me with a necessary springboard into the field of Genome Editing.
