Research · molecular biology
Recombinant DNA, and what it taught me about building.
Research in recombinant DNA technology — cutting, joining and moving genetic material, and reading whether it worked from noisy signal.
The work
The research.
A plain-language account of the research project is being written for this page: what the question was, what the construct was, how it was verified, and what did not work along the way. It will be written for a non-specialist and stay honest about the parts that were inconclusive.
In progress.
Method
Design under uncertainty.
- Protocols are hypotheses. You design one, run it, read the gel, and iterate. Software is the same loop with faster turnarounds.
- Signal is noisy. A faint band is not nothing, and a bright one is not proof. Most engineering judgment is learning what a result actually shows.
- Controls first. Before believing a positive, know what a negative looks like.