{"id":27,"date":"2026-06-26T14:31:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T13:31:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/life-health-chemical-sciences\/?page_id=27"},"modified":"2026-09-22T11:34:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T10:34:05","slug":"molecular-biology","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/life-health-and-chemical-sciences\/study\/our-facilities\/molecular-biology\/","title":{"rendered":"Molecular Biology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What this lab helps me to achieve<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>understand biological processes at the level of atoms, molecules, cells and organisms<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>isolate and extract nucleic acid<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>quantify DNA<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>amplify DNA<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>purify nucleic acid and proteins<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>quantify DNA and proteins from cell or tissue lysate<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>analyse your agarose and acrylamide gels or blots<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>measure concentration of DNA and protein\u00a0in microliter\u00a0amounts<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>measure UV-Vis spectrum of substances in microliter\u00a0amounts<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Who can use it<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>all STEM students, academics, visiting researchers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What instruments are there<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>PCR<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>qPCR<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>facilities for DNA and RNA extraction<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>facilities for making and running gels<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>gel analysis and imaging system<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>NanoDrop<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>plate readers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Where is the lab located<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Venables C Wing<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Who is responsible for this lab<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"mailto:brett.keith@open.ac.uk?subject=molecular%20lab%20enquiry\">Brett Keith<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"mailto:george.bryant@open.ac.uk?subject=molecular%20lab%20enquiry\">George Bryant<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Research groups using this lab<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/science\/life-health-chemical-sciences\/people\/iar26\">Ignacio Romero&#8217;s group<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/science\/life-health-chemical-sciences\/people\/mdb394\">Martin Bootman&#8217;s group<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/science\/life-health-chemical-sciences\/people\/kr5887\">Katja Rietdorf&#8217;s group<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/science\/life-health-chemical-sciences\/people\/fc3298\">Francesco Crea&#8217;s group<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Learn more about molecular biology<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/learn5.open.ac.uk\/course\/format\/sciencelab\/section.php?name=dna_quant\">try this free experiment on DNA quantitation via spectrophotometry<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/learn5.open.ac.uk\/course\/format\/sciencelab\/section.php?name=pcr01\">try this free experiment on quantitative PCR (qPCR)<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.open.edu\/openlearn\/science-maths-technology\/science\/across-the-sciences\/dna-profiling\">read this article on DNA profiling and PCR<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">current OU students only (you need to sign in to OU Learn to access these courses):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/learn5.open.ac.uk\/course\/format\/sciencelab\/section.php?name=wb_s317\">try this free SDS-PAGE and Western blotting activity<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Please have a look at a 360 degree view of our labs.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Open University 360 lab tour\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/v7tCftsyJqc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is a YouTube video and works best in Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge or later versions of Internet Explorer. It does not work in Safari at the moment. On mobile devices, use the latest version of the YouTube app for Android or iOS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What this lab helps me to achieve Who can use it What instruments are there Where is the lab located Venables C Wing Who is responsible for this lab Research groups using this lab Learn more about molecular biology current OU students only (you need to sign in to OU Learn to access these courses): [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"parent":9,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_unity_review_frequency":"","_unity_review_next_due":0,"_unity_review_reset_requested":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-27","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/life-health-and-chemical-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/life-health-and-chemical-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/life-health-and-chemical-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/life-health-and-chemical-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/life-health-and-chemical-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/life-health-and-chemical-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/life-health-and-chemical-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27\/revisions\/29"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/life-health-and-chemical-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/life-health-and-chemical-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}