{"id":2596,"date":"2026-11-09T16:43:19","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T16:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/?p=2596"},"modified":"2026-11-10T16:45:52","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T16:45:52","slug":"a-golden-bullet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/?p=2596","title":{"rendered":"A Golden Bullet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HOneT6Lj6FI\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In October, <strong>Sea Change<\/strong> student Rachel Coyne worked with <strong>Bigelow Laboratory<\/strong> SRS <strong>Jos\u00e9 Fern\u00e1ndez Robledo<\/strong> to optimize our biolistic gun protocol for microalgae.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Biolistic guns \u2014 also known as biolistic particle delivery systems, if you recall our pie-themed overview video from March \u2014 help scientists study the traits and characteristics of individual cells. Using pressurized helium gas, they fire gold particles to deliver DNA across cell walls, allowing researchers to explore how algal cells survive, thrive, and respond to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In this video, watch both the helium pressure gauge (on top) and the vacuum gauge (on the left) steadily rise. Once the particles are fired, you\u2019ll hear a pop and see both gauges plummet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jos\u00e9 says optimization of the protocol is about engineering in the present to engineer the future. Now THAT\u2019s what it means to be at the forefront of bold science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\ud83d\udcf8: Jos\u00e9 Fern\u00e1ndez Robledo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In October, Sea Change student Rachel Coyne worked with Bigelow Laboratory SRS Jos\u00e9 Fern\u00e1ndez Robledo to optimize our biolistic gun protocol for microalgae. Biolistic guns \u2014 also known as biolistic particle delivery systems, if you recall our pie-themed overview video from March \u2014 help scientists study the traits and characteristics of individual cells. Using pressurized [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2597,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","css_class_manager_body_classes":"","css_class_manager_use_in_post_loop":false},"categories":[13],"tags":[16,84,18,42],"class_list":["post-2596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science-oceans-potential","tag-biotech","tag-jose-fernandez-robledo","tag-maine","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2596"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2598,"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2596\/revisions\/2598"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}