On April 4, AEU Club successfully held the second webinar of the Training Course on the Detection of Pathogen.. Firstly, Research associate at the Faculty of Soil Science of the Moscow State University and molecular biologist Sergey Kharitonov, who is also the Head of Molecular Biology at AEU Club, spoke about bacteria and the ways we can extract and process their DNA. Students had a chance to look closer at the pecularities of bacteria and why many of them cannot be cultivated, which is a conventional method of studying them.
After that, the speaker talked about analysis techniques based on his own experience in the laboratory. He claimed that conventional methods (cultivation) of studying bacteria were not efficient. These methods can be inaccurate and special conditions and equipment were required. It is also difficult to differ among species.
The main point of lecture is that there are modern methods using DNA. It is harmless since a scientist does not work with living pathogens directly. The most efficient technique is to use 16s rRNA sequencing and Real-Time PCR technologies, since thus we can not only determine microbial structures but also to learn precise quantity of specific bacteria.
Mr Kharitonov showed the students the equipment for DNA extraction and processing and made sure that the audience understands how to run their own experiments and work with their results. On the next stages of the projects, students will prepare DNA samples themselves and analyze them with the help of scientists from Moscow State University.
