Back in the lab, I was tasked with getting my E. coli cells to take in a plasmid that contained two genes: a gene that would give them resistance to the antibiotic Ampicillin and a gene that would allow the E. coli to glow green under blacklight, called the Green-Fluorescent-Protein (GFP) gene. 

The GFP gene comes from bioluminescent jellyfish, and was first used for microbiology purposes in 1994. GFP helps scientists mark a specific protein or organelle within a living cell, and see what it does under a blacklit microscope in real time. It also allows scientists to measure the length of specific fragments of DNA in conjunction with another technique known as Gel Electrophoresis. 

The GFP gene was directly stuck to the Ampicillin-resistance gene, guaranteeing that if my E. coli cells could grow in an agar plate laced with Ampicillin, they would also glow green under blacklight. 

How was I going to force my E. coli cells to take in the GFP plasmid? 

While the process is, on paper, simple. In practice it’s very tedious, but still easy enough for a lowly undergrad like myself to do.