S-STEM Scholar Anh Nguyen's Blog

  Introduction:  Due to the contamination of our D.Aquaticus sample in week 13, I conducted new inoculated samples this week. Instead of just one sample, I conducted with 3 samples to ensure extra security and support. There was a lot of variables that went into the contamination of our  D. Aquaticus  sample so this time I wanted to do multiple samples to avoid situations like that. It will also give me extra samples to return back on (if they are not contaminated) rather than having to retry the inoculations again. It will also save on materials and ingredients.  Process:  I gathered 3 flasks with each one being A, B, and C. These will all have possibly the same amount of bacteria (one sterilized loopful) and TGY (25 mL).  First I pipetted 25mL of clean TGY into each of my flasks and then autoclave it to ensure that all of them are completely clean of any cells. After that I waited for them to cool down (almost to room temperature) to avoid killing D....

  Introduction In lab this week, a contamination was found in our D. Aquaticus (inoculated in 12/5 from 11/10 D. Aquaticus sample).  Fig. 1 D. Aquaticus sample inoculated in 12/5 In Fig. 1 , the contamination is not visible. Due to that, I decided to do a gram stain on this sample.  Fig 2. Gram Stain of the sample Discussion:  As shown in Fig. 2 , there seems to be little purple balls around the cells. Jessica Sabel and I suggest that it could be staph, a gram-positive bacteria that can come from the impact of skin. I believed that while working with the contaminated sample, it might have got in contact with our skins and particles which led to what seems to be staph cells in our sample.  Sources:  https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/staphylococcal-infections/