Re: [DIYbio] Viewing bacteria on a molecular level, how to do molecular modeling, and seeking beginner guidance

To see molecules sounds a lot like wanting to see atoms. Currently the people are doing things with scanning electron microscopes (and also scanning transmission electron microscopes) where you scan a surface and analyse the xrays that are emitted as a result of the electron beam impact. There are also people that look at the energy loss of electrons that bounced off (EELS).

Then there are environmental SEMs that can operate at high enough vacuum that cells can survive (so imaging can take place, then the cells returned to their normal growth chamber).

Then there is combination FIB +SEM serial block face sectioning... You end up with a 3D image dataset. In this technique an image is acquired, then the FIB is used like a machine-shop belt-sander to grind off (ablate) a layer, then another image is acquired, and the process repeats until the sample is gone through. This has to happen at cryo freezing temperatures, otherwise the molecules will move and the images will be blurred, not to mention the sequence of images in the serial block face operation.

And there's also cryo TEM tomography, where a cell or section/slice of a cell is in a frozen state and put into the TEM and an image is acquired. If the slice is too thick (which is the use-case for this technique) it will be blurry, but with math this can be unblurred into a 3D volume dataset. This is kind of like diffraction crystallography.

On Dec 9, 2015 8:59 PM, "coolcash2004" <davidconwayj@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi - I am new to biotech (though not to entrepreneurship in general).  I have a whole bunch of DIY questions that I am saving for later - for now I've just been doing a lot of research on my own trying to determine how I want to start and planning everything out.  Any help with the questions below would be greatly appreciated.  

1 - For a DIY lab, is it possible to view bacteria on the molecular level?  Separately, is it possible to view them while changing (pre treatment, during, and post) on a molecular level?  Is the equipment needed for this reasonably priced?  Is it ever possible to rent or borrow equipment?  (The microscopes I saw online seemed to cost $25,000+ but I can't imagine thats the only way - or I'm looking at the wrong machines).

2 - If I were to take the findings from part 1 (and have a detailed view of the bacteria in various states) is it possible to then design a new compound that will accomplish something specific with the bacteria WITHOUT taking existing compounds and without actually doing the lab testing for now?  And what would be the best way to approach this?  Is molecular modeling the best way to go?  Is it reasonable to learn as much as I can about various compounds, etc and then model a new compound from a problem solving approach rather than looking at existing compounds?  (Assume to date all existing compounds tested have failed).  Where should I look to begin learning the basics of how to engineer compounds?  Any links are appreciated.  School is not an option at this point.  I understand the process in general of looking at bacteria, finding targets, then design compound that will achieve goals within parameters - but I'm struggling to find info on how you actually design a compound (without just testing existing compounds for potential matches).    

3 - Is the NYC group I saw here still active?  It would be great to meet with other people from NYC at some point later on.

Thank you so much.  Any other feedback / resources are appreciated as well. 


  


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