Anthony Tan
Anthony Tan
Lab Instructor
Hands-on learning in the laboratory with real experiments
October 2025 Plant Genetic Engineering Workshop Series I taught in Professor Erika Yeh’s Introduction to Biotechnology Course at Berkeley City College 🎓
Mentored a high school science fair team that won Silver Medal at 2024 International iGEM Competition. Check out their project wiki to learn about their experiments, which they performed at Counter Culture Labs in Oakland 📍
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Plant Tissue Culture -
Micropropagation
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Micropropagation can yield dozens of clones from just a few nodes. Make tissue cultures of unique houseplants like variegated pothos (photos show growth over time)
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Skills taught: explant sterilization, plant media making, growth hormone selection, dissection and plant tissue culture initiation, subculturing and aseptic technique
Wet-Lab Biology Workshops
Courses I have designed and taught at various labs in the San Francisco Bay Area
Open registration to anyone - regardless of lab experience or biology background. Subscribe to my newsletter to enroll
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Bioreactor Fundamentals
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Bioreactors allow scientists to grow large volumes of cells. Vessels can be operated via a programmable control panel for automated feedback loops.
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Skills taught: Setting up a 2-Liter bioreactor; assembling parts including cooling jacket & chiller, sparger & impeller for oxygenation, etc; measuring dissolved O2; harvesting samples aseptically; using peristaltic pumps to adjust pH
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CRISPR-Cas9 Precision Gene
Editing Bootcamp
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Knocking out a gene by making a double stranded break with CRISPR-Cas9. Performing a full generation of edits from colony to colony. Non-edited cells contain the lacZ gene enabling production of blue pigment whereas Cas9-knockout cells lack the ability to make color
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Skills taught: Guide RNA and template design, plasmid assembly, DNA molecular biology web tools, colony PCR & gel electrophoresis, microbial transformation
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Plant Genetic Engineering
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Insert genes encoding for the production of red beetroot pigment into plant leaves! Take home a kit to turn your own plant red within a matter of days
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Skills taught: Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, plasmid design, plant-specific genetic regulatory elements, plant biochemistry, leaf infiltration and transient expression
Partner Laboratories
Bay Area is home to three community biology makerspaces, which offer a unique and resource-rich environment for lab work beyond academia and industry.