Today we continued the great start to SSP Genomics! Yesterday we practiced good lab practices for transferring bacteria to plates, and today our work paid off with glowing art!
The glowing bacteria you see, Photobacterium leiognathi, is a bio-luminescent saltwater bacteria that glows in the dark. We made these beautiful drawings with paintbrushes dipped in a broth filled vial with P. leiognathi and brushing it onto a agar plate of LB3 medium with salt (to imitate its home saltwater). Though seeing our paintings glow was the most exciting part of the day, we also continued to calibrate our morbidostats and learned about scientific literature and primary documents. While testing out the morbidostats for the first time didn’t work out perfectly for everyone, we all eventually calibrated our equipment and fought our way through.
While these first few days have been fun, what we have planned next is more so! We finish calibration tomorrow morning, and after calibration we finally get to start our experiment in making the fastest spreading bacteria on Earth resistant to multiple types of antibiotics! We at SSP cannot wait!
