ledzeppelin3 Posted October 22, 2004 Share Posted October 22, 2004 For biology this year I want to do an experiment and paper on bacteria's ability to resist antibiotics. One of the requirements is that we contact an expert in the field. Since most of you are pretty intellegent I was hoping you give me a name of someone to contact so I can talk to them. Also- What would a good experimental design for this type of experiment be? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MolecularMan14 Posted October 22, 2004 Share Posted October 22, 2004 You might look into cell wall deficient organisms. Lida Mattman is coming out with a 4th edition (or so she tells me). It's interesting on how the lack of a cell wall can make a cell invisible to an antibiotic. It's a very intriguing topic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharonY Posted October 22, 2004 Share Posted October 22, 2004 How about checking with a microbiologist at the nearest university? Setup is pretty straightforward. A standard test is to plate the bactaeria on an agar plate and put discs with antibiotics on it. Measure the zone of inhibition. Each discs contains a different AB (or concentration). Another standard test are MIC-tests (Minimum inhibition concentration). THese are more work. You need liquid medium, each containing rising concentrations of AB. You measure the optical density (OD) to determine which cocentration of a respective AB inhibits growth. Note that in many countries for safety reasons you are required to kill the bacteria after use, which requires autoclaving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daisy Posted October 22, 2004 Share Posted October 22, 2004 I would re-iterate what CharonY says and add that transfer of genetic material (plasmids) containing antibiotic resistance genes occurs between bacteria. This happens in the "natural world" but can also be utilised in research to select bacterial clones for experimental purposes when resistance can be deliberately conferred for said selection purposes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Typhi Posted November 19, 2004 Share Posted November 19, 2004 You can also go to the State lab and talk to the microbiologist who work with the bugs. We in the Enterics section do NARMS testing for every 20 Salmonella we ID. Edit to fix spelling..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Typhi Posted November 19, 2004 Share Posted November 19, 2004 You can also go to the State lab and talk to the microbiologist who work with the bugs. We in the Enterics section do NARMS testing for every 20 Salmonella we ID. Edit to fix spelling..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MolecularMan14 Posted November 21, 2004 Share Posted November 21, 2004 true. Its a very good idea to get expert view, other than those you'll find on websites Like Typhi said, check out a local lab, and see what kind of stuff scientists know or even speculate about evasive/resistant bugs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MolecularMan14 Posted November 21, 2004 Share Posted November 21, 2004 true. Its a very good idea to get expert view, other than those you'll find on websites Like Typhi said, check out a local lab, and see what kind of stuff scientists know or even speculate about evasive/resistant bugs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ledzeppelin3 Posted December 30, 2004 Author Share Posted December 30, 2004 what would an effective bacteria to use, and what type of antibiotic could I use. Also, how would I get these supplies? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drug addict Posted January 2, 2005 Share Posted January 2, 2005 I guess Staph. aureus or E.coli should both be ok to use, they are both pretty easy to culture. As for choice of antibiotic, it depends on how much money you have to spend. The older antibiotics, penicillin for example, are dirt cheap, but newer ones are far more expensive ( a course of methicillin is something like 2000x more expensive than metronidazole). Safety would also be an issue in choice of antibiotic - not a great idea to go messing around with things like vancomycin. It should be easy to get hold of what you need from any major supplier, but the place you're at has probably got preferred suppliers. If you want any information on modes of antibiotic action, just ask (or look in a pharmacology or medical microbiology textbook) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ecoli Posted January 7, 2005 Share Posted January 7, 2005 Many types antibiotics come in solid disc form. Instead of puting antibiotic on a disc, you can put the antibiotic right on the plate...It's not any more effective. But, experiment wise, it's an easier procedure. There are plenty of antibiotics you can use. Contact a researcher at a local lab (email is fine), and 10 bucks says he could tell the antibiotics which are best to use. edit: come to think of it...I've done the exact same lab before, if you want I can dig up the protocol for you. Or did you want to design the experiment yourself? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PiLoT Posted March 19, 2005 Share Posted March 19, 2005 the disc proceedure is realtively easy to prepare but sometimes the results might not be consistent. another method by incubate bacteria in broth and find out its % absorbance to construct its growth curve. then you could introduce different antibiotics and notice the effects on bacterial growth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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