Hi Ghosthunter100,
Like I wrote in my answer to your question about isolating enzymes (https://helium.imascientist.org.au/2012/05/21/is-it-difficult-to-isolate-enzymes/#comment-791), I don’t actually isolate enzymes myself. Other people that I work with (biochemists) do that as part of their job, while I stick more to the chemistry side of things (like making substrates for the enzymes).
But, the answer to your question is no – the people I work with don’t (and I certainly don’t!) get to go to isolated places to get samples of rare creatures to get enzymes. Some people do get to, but we don’t (it depends what type of enzyme/organism you are interested in, and if you are trying to find new enzymes or if you work with ones that are already known and can become readily available in other ways). Sometimes we get some organisms (like fruit flies, or plants, or fungi or bacteria) to try to get enzymes out of, but usually we can go and get them from somewhere nearby, or someone sends them to us.
Often, if another scientist (anywhere in the world!) has some of a particular enzyme you are interested in working with, either they can send you some DNA that you can then use to produce some of the enzyme for yourself (see my other answer to learn about how that works), or you can actually go and visit their lab and work there for a little while (I did this a few years ago – it was pretty cool!). 🙂
Hi Ghosthunter100,
Like I wrote in my answer to your question about isolating enzymes (https://helium.imascientist.org.au/2012/05/21/is-it-difficult-to-isolate-enzymes/#comment-791), I don’t actually isolate enzymes myself. Other people that I work with (biochemists) do that as part of their job, while I stick more to the chemistry side of things (like making substrates for the enzymes).
But, the answer to your question is no – the people I work with don’t (and I certainly don’t!) get to go to isolated places to get samples of rare creatures to get enzymes. Some people do get to, but we don’t (it depends what type of enzyme/organism you are interested in, and if you are trying to find new enzymes or if you work with ones that are already known and can become readily available in other ways). Sometimes we get some organisms (like fruit flies, or plants, or fungi or bacteria) to try to get enzymes out of, but usually we can go and get them from somewhere nearby, or someone sends them to us.
Often, if another scientist (anywhere in the world!) has some of a particular enzyme you are interested in working with, either they can send you some DNA that you can then use to produce some of the enzyme for yourself (see my other answer to learn about how that works), or you can actually go and visit their lab and work there for a little while (I did this a few years ago – it was pretty cool!). 🙂
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