Introduction to Research: First Week

    On February 4th Dr. Touhy reached out to me regarding my interest in the STEM TRAIN Scholars program. Naturally, I was excited to see he went out of his way to contact me. We sent back and forth emails a couple times before he invited me to come to see the lab.  Once I made it to the lab Dr. Touhy greeted me and showed me around the lab and explained to me what everything does (do not quiz me on everything though). He explained the process and how the research works within the lab, and how I would be working with a team and mentor. Then Dr. Touhy introduced me to Jonathan and the team.

Teamwork

    Once I was introduced to Jonathan and the team, I hit the ground running. As I found myself joining in the middle of their day, and a few weeks behind, there was a lot of catching up to do. Thankfully for me, everyone on the team is extremely nice and helpful, seeing as I asked the same questions repetitively. From there I was introduced to e. coli and Deinococcus and a wealth of knowledge on the subject. Since I came in halfway through the day the team was already set up to do some experimenting. First, we went through the steps of how to make LB agar for the gel plates for e.coli, and then TGY Broth for deinoccus. I later found out e.coli is ampicillin-resistant (an antibiotic), and likes being in an environment that is 37 degrees celsius. Now that introductions are out of the way we began learning about the infamous 4 Streak Method. In simple terms, the 4 Streak Method is using 4 quadrants of a dish to spread out the bacteria. Once the bacteria is spread, we then house the bacteria in a 37 degrees celsius incubator and wait for the bacteria to grow. The goal behind this is to only make ampicillin-resistant e.coli.

Hands-on: Gram Testing

    After we finished adding the bacteria to the gel plates and placing them in the incubator, it was time for more hands-on. We met with another mentor and she introduced us (probably just me) to Gram Testing. We would then test to see whether the bacteria are gram-positive, or gram-negative. How might we do that? Well, it starts with a clean slide, you then take your writing utensil (wax pen) and mark a specific area on the slide. Then take a small colony off the gel with your tiny loop, then smear the colony on the slide. After these steps, you hold the slide overhead to make sure it is fixed to the slide. Now for the science part. You then take your crystal violet dye and apply it to slide for one minute. Following that, you gently rinse the slide with distilled water. Apply grams iodine (makes stain penetrate), and then wash gently with distilled water. After their second bath, they receive one more with 95% ethanol until the slide is clear. Then use safranin as the last and final stain, let it sit for 30 seconds. After these steps, it is ready for the microscope. If the bacteria is positive, it will hold the crystal violet dye and be purple or violet. If negative, bacteria will hold safranin color, which is pink or red. 

Summary

    Overall it was a productive day, from a scientific standpoint, and from my own standpoint. After the day was over and the lab was cleaned up, I practiced pipetting with the micro-pipettes. There is a lot of valuable knowledge being shared within the lab, and while I am trying to take a sip from a fire hydrant, it was a great first introduction to the team, as well as research. 

Comments

  1. EricaFebruary 12, 2022 at 9:41 AM

    Great work! Best of luck for a productive and fruitful semester in the lab!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Teeba AlkaissyFebruary 15, 2022 at 10:47 PM

    Sam, I had fun reading your blog. Keep the humorous part of your blog going!

    ReplyDelete

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