The idea for this project came to us last year. Since most of us did not have any experience analyzing DNA, we wanted to first test if it was something that was even feasible. Before we extracted so many DNA samples for our project, we decided to prepare a test run during the Whit Holiday, in which each team member worked with his or her own DNA.

On Whit Tuesday, we all arrived early at the school's microbiology laboratory, where Dr. Torsten Klade, a microbiologist, explained the necessary steps and later helped us to analyze DNA. We chose to identify the three SNPs using FRET probes along with primer pairs and a qPCR from the company Roche. At the end of the day, each team member had isolated his or her DNA more or less successfully and waited excitedly for the results.

For the most part, we were able to evaluate our results. However, they did not correlate with our PROP taste test. We had to find out what we did wrong. In the end, it turned out that the FRET probes did not function properly and our results were invalid. The production company naturally claimed that it was something else, after all the probes had cost a lot of money. However, we still learned a lot about the process of SNP determination, which would serve us well for our project.

We changed to TagMan probes and to a qPCR from the company BioRad. BioRad lent us a CFX96 Real-Time PCR System (shortened qPCR) for free. The company Eurofins MWG Operon synthesized matching TagMan probes and primers for an extremely good price.