Prince William and Big Manny extract DNA from strawberries
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Published
07 February 2025
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Last week, UEL biomedical science alumni and TikTok sensation Big Manny was captured with Prince William attempting a science experiment.
Big Manny, who graduated from our BSc Biomedical Science and MSc Biomedical Science courses, took to Instagram to explain how he and the prince were visiting the company NatureMetrics where they were learning how to extract DNA from soil, rivers and the air.
The unexpected pair worked together to extract DNA from a strawberry in a video reel. Prince William described himself as Big Manny’s ‘beautiful assistant’ whilst holding a plastic zip-lock bag containing a strawberry.
Big Manny proceeded to squish the strawberry saying, ‘This will release all the content and break the cell wall.’
A separate solution was created by mixing salt and washing up liquid in a beaker. Prince William was seen mixing the solution and pouring it into the zip-lock bag with the squished strawberry.
Once the strawberry and liquid was thoroughly mixed, the prince poured it through a sieve to separate the liquid and pulp.
The pure liquid was then poured into a test tube where Big Manny added rubbing alcohol into the mixture before pulling the strand of DNA out.
‘Strawberries are great for DNA extraction experiments because they are octoploid’, said Big Manny. This means strawberries have eight times the standard haploid chromosome number.
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