Minimal supervision in Phd
It is not normal in UK biology PhDs for a student to be completely abandoned with no help; particularly not at the beginning. As you become more confident you will be able to take on new areas and new techniques with minimal advice, but I would never expect a student to dive into complicated, expensive and potentially dangerous experiments without so much as a protocol. 

I would do the following:


Ask your supervisor straight up if he knows where a protocol might be found for the experiment, or whether he sees designing the protocol as part of the thesis. 
Find others in your institution, but outside your lab that might be able to help. 
Find an online protocol or protcol in a text book and specifically ask your supervisor if he thinks it is a good protocol and if he knows of anyone who can go through it with you.
If all else fails, a UK institution will almost always assign you a second supervisor or advisor: go speak to them.