Phage science fair project?

[hitmankratos]

Hello

I'm in Grade 10 and I'm thinking about my science fair project.

I just learned about phage therapy, which could be promising because all bacteria have a certain resistance to antibiotics (right?).

 

So I was wondering if I could do such thing (considering that I can have a proffessor to help me) at my level.

And then, another problem, what kind of experiment could be done? Something that could be interesting for a science fair....

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Come one anyone?

[Wolfkeeper]

Hello

I'm in Grade 10 and I'm thinking about my science fair project.

I just learned about phage therapy, which could be promising because all bacteria have a certain resistance to antibiotics (right?).

 

So I was wondering if I could do such thing (considering that I can have a proffessor to help me) at my level.

And then, another problem, what kind of experiment could be done? Something that could be interesting for a science fair....

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Come one anyone?

I was looking into doing phage therapy against a bacteria that's on almost everyone's skin called Propionibacterium Acnes. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propionibacterium_acnes

 

You should be able to isolate it off your own skin, it shines in ultraviolet, and AFAIK is not particularly hard to grow. There do exist phages that kill it (that can be bought commercially- fairly expensive several hundred dollars!), but with care you might be able to find them living in the wild.

 

It should be safe to handle, because everyone is covered with it anyway.

 

If you can find a phage with it, in principle you could use it to clear up or improve people's acne (but the phages are very specific, so what works for one person may not work for another).

 

If you have a biology professor he might well be able to help you out with it.

 

There was a patent somewhere or other with instructions on how to isolate the bacteria from the other bacteria that lives on people's skin.

 

Pretty much AFAIK mostly all you need is some growth medium, agar plates, somewhere to keep it (body temperature), an ultraviolet light, and some chemicals to kill off other bacteria, and maybe a few other things like jam jars and equipment to collect samples. Could be fun, but there's absolutely no guarantee you'd succeed!

 

So the experiment would be; collect bacteria, grow it, show that it's the right bacteria. Then try collecting phage from various places (sewers, people's skin etc.) and seeing if you can kill it. If you manage to do that, you could multiply up the phage and put it through a ceramic filter and you're done, stick it in the fridge.

Edited August 21, 2008 by Wolfkeeper

[hitmankratos]

Thanks you for your reply.

This is a good idea but I think it is a little bit too easy...Wouldn't you know some other bacteria that sometimes resists to antibacteria and that could be killed by phages?

These are the things that could captivate judges as well as visitors...Something promising...

Acne has already tons of remedies so...

[Wolfkeeper]

It's not easy at all, it's actually cutting edge research, and immunity of this organism to antibiotics is a *massive* problem in dermatology. Whole long lists of drugs no longer work at all on most patients, and it's getting worse.

 

And more than 80% of people suffer from acne at some time in their lives.

 

p.s. The phages that exist for it are not suitable to kill it, they're for identifying the organism. There's no phage therapy on the market at all.