Because unfortunately, just like L. Acidophilus, it is a needy bacteria that can thrive on only certain nutrient rich environments and the nutrients found on the MRS plates are not capable of allowing S. Typhimurium to survive on it because it doesn’t have the nutrients it needs
We wouldn’t have had to do too many more trials. The next step that we really needed to take was putting both L. Acidophilus and S. Typhimurium on the same media to see if it could outcompete in order to really further our research
MRS broth is going to be a more nutrient-rich broth that has basically more nutrients than your regular media (LB). The reason we used this broth in the end was because we found out that L. Acidophilus is actually resistant to LB media and it doesn’t fully capture the stomachs environment.
Because salmonella infects the gastrointestinal tract and you took L. acidophilus from the GI tract, would it be safe to increase the amount of L. acidophilus?
We weren’t able to fully research this in our experiment but there is, basically, a bacterial therapeutic index and it is extremely rare to have cases where L. Acidophilus becomes toxic to the human body at high amounts (which is a huge reason why we choose this bacteria because it would be almost impossible for it to be toxic for the host as well as not having a resistance).
Why do you think there was no growth of the Salmonella on the MRS plate?
Because unfortunately, just like L. Acidophilus, it is a needy bacteria that can thrive on only certain nutrient rich environments and the nutrients found on the MRS plates are not capable of allowing S. Typhimurium to survive on it because it doesn’t have the nutrients it needs
What would be the number of trials you would ideally liked to have done if you had time?
We wouldn’t have had to do too many more trials. The next step that we really needed to take was putting both L. Acidophilus and S. Typhimurium on the same media to see if it could outcompete in order to really further our research
Do you think an immune response from the human body would impact the drug’s effectiveness?
I don’t believe so because our body is already producing this bacteria naturally so it doesn’t pose it as a threat to our immune system
What exactly is MRS broth, and how does it differ from other media?
MRS broth is going to be a more nutrient-rich broth that has basically more nutrients than your regular media (LB). The reason we used this broth in the end was because we found out that L. Acidophilus is actually resistant to LB media and it doesn’t fully capture the stomachs environment.
Because salmonella infects the gastrointestinal tract and you took L. acidophilus from the GI tract, would it be safe to increase the amount of L. acidophilus?
We weren’t able to fully research this in our experiment but there is, basically, a bacterial therapeutic index and it is extremely rare to have cases where L. Acidophilus becomes toxic to the human body at high amounts (which is a huge reason why we choose this bacteria because it would be almost impossible for it to be toxic for the host as well as not having a resistance).