Today's work on the RNA-seq samples

The Co-op tech has pressed half the samples through the RNeasy kit spin columns, and will probably get the rest done today.

But she also is still working on the PCR checks (problems getting amplification from the colony-DNA material) and redoing some of the transformation assays (using the frozen cells I'd saved for each sample) because two of her original tests gave surprisingly low transformation frequencies.

I'm hoping we can also get started on the next steps today - checking the RNA concentrations using the Nanodrop and running aliquots in a gel to check that the rRNA bands are intact.  First step for this is to clean up a gel box and comb and see if we have any RNA-loading dye made up.