empirical assay #1

So empirical assay #1 didn’t work… my five-fold-above plate was the closest to being webbed. I did a second empirical assay today, this time going two and five fold above that plate and also two fold below, just in case. Hopefully one of those will work! My bet is on the two fold above.

« Spot test done!

Spot test done!

I take back what I said in my last post. All of the numbers are killing me! Calculating the pfu is the hardest part of everything… So many zeros!!
On another note, my spot test is complete. My plaques are lytic and varied in size from about 0.3mm to 1 mm.

empirical assay #1 »« flooding the plate!

flooding the plate!

so yesterday I finally had a plate that was ready to be flooded. It was definitely the shortest lab procedure ever. one step. so I’m excited to move on today and do something a little more involved.
Also, I think I’m finally getting the hang of what pfu and pfu/ml and all of that is. I guess that’s a good thing after all these calculations!

Spot test done! »« back on track…

back on track…

I now have a new, memorable password for my blog.

Well, I found out last week that I had been repeating the same procedure and not making any progress. Instead of picking a new phage each time we did the purification, we had been using the same original sample. Which didn’t make much sense at the time, but I went with it. Now that I see that written out, it doesn’t make any sense at all. Probably should have questioned that…

But yesterday I picked a new plaque and will hopefully actually see real results tomorrow (rather than the same thing I’ve been seeing for the past week or so). It feels good to be making progress.

flooding the plate! »« soil sample and first impressions

soil sample and first impressions

First of all, I have to say that the reason I just now created my blog is I was trying to come up with a super creative name. That didn’t happen. But I figured that it was about time I started this.

So. My soil sample came from a flower bed outside of the North Village at Baylor. I got one from my neighborhood back home in Tyler, but forgot it. So my friend and I went on a walk looking for good dirt, which I dug up with a spoon. It was also kind of late so we got a few weird looks..

I was excited about this class before, and now that we’re actually in the lab working on our project it’s even more exciting. I think it will take a while to build up the confidence to feel like I know what I’m doing. It all feels so much more advanced and REAL than high school biology, which is awesome. I can’t wait to see where it all goes!

back on track… »« Hello world!

Hello world!

Welcome to Personal Learning Environments. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

soil sample and first impressions »