How to Use a Gene Gun

Science Roll always has some of the most interesting articles…video at the website. Video is fascinating on how the entire process works. BD

If you dream of creating genetically modified plants or animals, watch this short film: It makes preparing DNA-laden gold bullets for a gene gun, and shooting them into rat brain cells, look easy. Although the video is meant for neuroscience research, it showcases tools and techniques that are also used in synthetic biology -- the branch of science that deals with creating new forms of life.The video, which was produced by the Journal of Visualized Experiments, allows you to look over the shoulder of Georgia Woods, a graduate student at the University of California Davis.

She narrates while decorating tiny gold particles with DNA, coating the inside of a plastic tube with those bullets, and firing them into rat neurons. At one point, she even demonstrates a simple mod for her Bio-Rad Helios gene gun.