Week 13

 Happy 13th week of the Spring semester!

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, the research team (me included) presented at the Arizona Nevada Academy of Science this year! The team decided to split the posters into chemical and biological contaminants, which is why the poster I posted last week emphasized microbial testing and identification. It was a lovely experience, and the oral presenters were phenomenal- it definitely intrigued me to attempt an oral presentation one year. 

This week has been moderately carefree since the biological contaminants poster is complete. I ran more Biolog testing from the missing stage on the poster (Stage 4) and discovered that Stage 4 was Escherichia coli, which supported the hypothesis of coliform (intestinal and gram-negative bacteria) mainly being predominant in the wastewater samples. 

I'm in the process of identifying five other isolates from Dr. Cotter's microbiology class using the Biolog Microstation. I inoculated the TSB (general broth) bacteria onto the BUG (Biolog Universal Growth) agar, which, after confirming the growth of the bacteria, micropipetted 100 microliters into the microplate (consists of 96 wells to fill). 

This morning, I will be reading the growth on the microplate with the Biolog and updating the results for the students to see!

I attached my favorite bacterial growth on the BUG media based on appearance (Site 2, Isolate 5) and the updated poster below :)