I really enjoyed the presentation! I was wondering why those 2 specific drugs were used as the control and negative control in the context of the experiment.
Hey Hannah! Colchicine was used as the positive control because it is already a well known chemotherapy, DMSO was used as the negative control because it works as a solvent and has no effect on the fly’s survival rate.
I really liked your presentation! I think that the poster font could be a little bit bigger just because it is hard to see. Could you of used any other organisms for your positive and negative controls?
Hello Anneliese! Drosophila melanogaster was the ideal organism for this experiment because they mimic the three-dimensional and multi-cell type environment of real cancer cells. If a different model organism were to be used it would have to be some sort of invertebrate for ethical reasons and the same model organism would be used for all positive controls, negative controls, and vials testing valproic acid. The reason the same model organism has to be used for all vials is because we need consistent methods throughout in order to obtain reliable results which we can later compare to each other.
Hello Daniel! The cutoff percentage was determined through calculating the -2 standard deviation below the DMSO’s mean. If the the survival rate falls below the cutoff percentage then this signifies that the compound is effective in lowering the survival rates of the flies and would be considered a chemotherapeutic hit.
I really enjoyed the presentation! I was wondering why those 2 specific drugs were used as the control and negative control in the context of the experiment.
Hey Hannah! Colchicine was used as the positive control because it is already a well known chemotherapy, DMSO was used as the negative control because it works as a solvent and has no effect on the fly’s survival rate.
I really liked your presentation! I think that the poster font could be a little bit bigger just because it is hard to see. Could you of used any other organisms for your positive and negative controls?
Hello Anneliese! Drosophila melanogaster was the ideal organism for this experiment because they mimic the three-dimensional and multi-cell type environment of real cancer cells. If a different model organism were to be used it would have to be some sort of invertebrate for ethical reasons and the same model organism would be used for all positive controls, negative controls, and vials testing valproic acid. The reason the same model organism has to be used for all vials is because we need consistent methods throughout in order to obtain reliable results which we can later compare to each other.
What is the significance of the cutoff percentage for the experiment? How was this cutoff determined?
Hello Daniel! The cutoff percentage was determined through calculating the -2 standard deviation below the DMSO’s mean. If the the survival rate falls below the cutoff percentage then this signifies that the compound is effective in lowering the survival rates of the flies and would be considered a chemotherapeutic hit.