Who is Les Lane?
Position:
Associate Prof. Plant Pathology
Specialty - Plant virology, structure, physical methods of diagnosis - see home page
Education:
B.S. Chemistry - Univ. Wisconsin, 1965
PhD. Biochemistry - Univ. Wisconsin, 1971
Post Doc - John Innes Inst (Norwich) 1971-73
General interests:
See public home page
How did I get stuck teaching something so dull as glycogen?
That's what I thought. Actually it's more interesting than it seems to begin with. I'm not a glycogen expert which means that
I may pass on your most penetrating questions. On the other hand perhaps I don't know enough to confuse you.
What do I know that could help a biochemist?
Gel electrophoresis, including media and detection (silver staining and fluorescence)
Phenol extraction - proteins as well as nucleic acids
The ultracentrifuge
Buffers and solutions - did they say you could forget Henderson-Hasselbalch after beginning biochem? Oops, good luck.
Hints
Know whether your buffer is an acid or a base (tris is a base, most of the
Good buffers are acids)
For basic buffers add acid (HCl, acetic) volumetrically. The pipet is more robust than the glass electrode.
Have enough salt in your system so that you can vary pH w/o appreciably changing ionic strength
Detergents - Most biochemists are blissfully unaware of the detergent variety found in
McCutcheon's Emulsifiers and Detergents, nor are they aware of how to match detergent types and HLB numbers to make detergent substitutions.