Metagenomics of the Inner Harbor: Extracting DNA from the environment

Metagenomics of the Inner Harbor is a 4-session series of courses. Each session is independent, and you can attend as many or as few as you would like.

About the course series: Is there life in our Inner Harbor? Of course, it’s teeming with living organisms! Not only the fish, crabs, and oysters that we think of immediately, but also microscopic life. In this course, we will be collaborating with researchers at the University of Maryland’s Institute for Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET) to sequence the DNA of all plankton living in the Inner Harbor. Learn all about the field of metagenomics and how next-generation sequencing can be applied to environmental monitoring and preservation. Perform cutting-edge DNA library preparation in the lab! This is a great opportunity to learn about groundbreaking metagenomics technology (simultaneously sequencing the DNA of all organisms in a habitat).

About this session: In this first session, we will learn how to take an environmental sample taken from the Inner Harbor and extract the DNA from the complex mixture of organisms living there. Why are there so many steps, and how do we make sure that we have remove all of the many contaminants in each sample for this sensitive technique to be successful? In session 2, we'll prepare this DNA for sequencing to identify all the living species!

Thanks to generous support from the Chesapeake Bay Trust and the Department of Public Works Stormwater Runoff Fund, generous scholarships are available, please use this link to apply! https://forms.gle/8E7xa8foeekuT3qUA

Host or Publisher Baltimore Under Ground Science Space