I ended the visit with Carrie by helping her with her work. I can't wait for my next visit. This is a powerful to detect RNA molecules in blood or in cells, such as the AIDS virus for example. M13 is a bacteriophage which has a filamentous shape. The phage we used is a peptide display library.
Many different peptides are on the outside of the phages.
One of these peptides has to assist the phage in entering the cells through receptor sites on the cell. We are trying to conduct an experiment to find out which peptide will bind to the transferrin receptor. The first thing that we did was place the transferrin receptor with milk in a well. The transferrin receptor will bind to the plastic, along with the milk. The milk's proteins will bind to all the places on the plate that the transferrin receptor doesn't.