Katie Entry #5: Last Week in Lab

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, but these past few weeks have been hectic!

During my last week in the lab, I tried transduction again using the phage lysate that I had made the previous week to move the mutant regions from two cold-sensitive mutant S. aureus strains to the wild type S. aureus strain.  However, this time I used a different protocol which included more bacteria and a longer incubation period.  Fortunately, more bacteria colonies grew on the plates containing erythromycin.  Next, I grew these colonies in liquid media at different temperatures, took their ODs every hour, and calculated the doubling time of each colony at each temperature to determine if the resulting colonies showed cold sensitivity similar to the mutant strains. For the first few days, the colonies did not exhibit any cold-sensitivity.  Later in the week, the colonies tested showed moderately impaired growth in cold conditions, but they were not as cold-sensitive as the original two mutant strains. 

Throughout the week, I also worked on my final presentation that I would give at the end of the week on all of the work that I had done during the past six weeks. While working on the powerpoint, I went through my lab notebook and read a ton of primary research articles (which luckily I had a lot of practice with from EXP class) to highlight background information, what I had done, my results, and what was left to do.  I was a little nervous going into the presentation because I had an hour to talk, but it ended up going pretty well and there were a lot of questions and discussion so I didn't end up talking for the whole time.  It was really interesting to see how everyone in the lab confers and figures things out together. We also had pizza and an ice cream party on my last day in the lab, which was really fun.  

Overall, I had an incredible time in the Cheung Lab.  I learned so much about microbiology, lab technique, and research skills and everyone in the lab was so welcoming and nice. I had an amazing experience and I can't wait to hear about everyone else's lab when school starts.