Thank you! Luckily, there were not many extra precautions to take as everything in this lab was safe. The radiation machine door would not open until the machine was shut down so it was safe to retrieve the irradiated larvae. The venom was handled with gloves but it would have not have caused any harm if it got on the skin. The venom would only hurt if it was injected directly into the body.
Good!
How do you think different dosages/concentrations will affect the effectiveness of the compound? Do you think that as the concentration decreases, the effectiveness will decrease as well?
I would think that higher dosages would be more effective. However, according to our data, the effectiveness of the compound seemed to increase as the concentration decreased. This went against our expectations and suggests a fluke with our testing. We would need more testing and trials to see if the effectiveness does indeed decrease with the concentration.
What exactly is this compound used for in Cuba? What are the dosages used and how effective is the treatment from its usage in Cuba? Did this factor into your research at all?
Vidatox is a more broadly used medicine in Cuba as a homeopathic treatment but more recently, some scientists saw positive effects in cancer patients. However, there has very little research done on its effectiveness as a cancer treatment. This potential led to us to further research how exactly the compound reacts in the body.
There should more testing with different dosages without radiation to provide further data about whether the compound is a poison, in addition to more trials of the our dilutions experiment with radiation. Our dilutions experiment shows that lower concentrations were more effective than the max dose, which we did not expect. Additionally, the percent survivals for these concentrations were very low. Therefore, it would be helpful to test the dilutions without radiation as well to see if each concentration still maintains a low percent survival.
Why might the .125% concentration of scorpion toxin have had the lowest survival rate when higher concentrations were used? It makes sense to me that a higher concentration would simply kill more cells.
I agree! Our group thought this as well but the data went against our expectations as we thought the max dose would have the lowest percent survival. This may have been a fluke with our testing. We would need more repeated testing and trials to determine if this is indeed true.
Nice job! I wanted to ask what extra precautions you had to take because you were working with radiation and scorpion venom and stuff?
Thank you! Luckily, there were not many extra precautions to take as everything in this lab was safe. The radiation machine door would not open until the machine was shut down so it was safe to retrieve the irradiated larvae. The venom was handled with gloves but it would have not have caused any harm if it got on the skin. The venom would only hurt if it was injected directly into the body.
Good!
How do you think different dosages/concentrations will affect the effectiveness of the compound? Do you think that as the concentration decreases, the effectiveness will decrease as well?
I would think that higher dosages would be more effective. However, according to our data, the effectiveness of the compound seemed to increase as the concentration decreased. This went against our expectations and suggests a fluke with our testing. We would need more testing and trials to see if the effectiveness does indeed decrease with the concentration.
What exactly is this compound used for in Cuba? What are the dosages used and how effective is the treatment from its usage in Cuba? Did this factor into your research at all?
Vidatox is a more broadly used medicine in Cuba as a homeopathic treatment but more recently, some scientists saw positive effects in cancer patients. However, there has very little research done on its effectiveness as a cancer treatment. This potential led to us to further research how exactly the compound reacts in the body.
Nice presentation! Why must the different dilutions be tested along side each other without radiation?
There should more testing with different dosages without radiation to provide further data about whether the compound is a poison, in addition to more trials of the our dilutions experiment with radiation. Our dilutions experiment shows that lower concentrations were more effective than the max dose, which we did not expect. Additionally, the percent survivals for these concentrations were very low. Therefore, it would be helpful to test the dilutions without radiation as well to see if each concentration still maintains a low percent survival.
Why might the .125% concentration of scorpion toxin have had the lowest survival rate when higher concentrations were used? It makes sense to me that a higher concentration would simply kill more cells.
I agree! Our group thought this as well but the data went against our expectations as we thought the max dose would have the lowest percent survival. This may have been a fluke with our testing. We would need more repeated testing and trials to determine if this is indeed true.
Why might have the .125 concentration been more effective than the .5? I figured more toxin would kill more cells.
Why might the .125% concentration have been more effective than the .5? I figured more toxin would kill more cells.