Thank you for your question! A spectrophotometer is a machine that is connected to a computer software that we placed our well plates into and it produced an absorbance value reading of each of the wells. It measures this absorbance by passing light through the wells in order to see how much light is absorbed by the wells. Absorbance is not concentration, however, the two entities are directly related. A well with a high concentration will indicate that bacteria did not die, so the absorbance values will also be high, and vice versa for low concentration wells. Absorbance is a value that has no units.
Our lab director, Dr. Pamela Harvey gave us a list of previous semester’s studies and we saw that a group last year used Betulin. We studied it because we saw that it might have antimicrobial effects, and last year’s group’s data indicated that it needed to be replicable. Because of this, we did further research of why betulin might be an antibiotic or have antibiotic properties and saw that it was capable of inducing apoptosis in cells, which we found interesting. All of these factors combined made us want to further research this compound.
Great question! A probiotic would be something that is two standard deviations above the mean of our negative control. This indicates that it has a high absorbance value and a high concentration of bacteria, hence indicating that the bacteria grew. For antibiotics, they are values that are two standard deviations below the mean. These antibiotic values have low absorbance values because they have low concentrations because they either kill, or slow the growth of bacteria, meaning they are antibiotics.
Hi- Yes! The max dose was not determined through tests. We learned in our class that the highest physiologically relevant dose at which drugs can be given to humans before they become unsafe or too toxic is 10uM. For this reason, we created our stock solution at the ‘max dose’, which was 10uM for reasons explained above, and tested how our compound acted on the Salmonella at its highest possible safe dose. This is why it was called our max dose.
curesymposium.org 
What is a spectrophotometer? and are your absorption values a concentration?
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Thank you for your question! A spectrophotometer is a machine that is connected to a computer software that we placed our well plates into and it produced an absorbance value reading of each of the wells. It measures this absorbance by passing light through the wells in order to see how much light is absorbed by the wells. Absorbance is not concentration, however, the two entities are directly related. A well with a high concentration will indicate that bacteria did not die, so the absorbance values will also be high, and vice versa for low concentration wells. Absorbance is a value that has no units.
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Hi! How did you decide to use betulin as your resistant against salmonella?
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Our lab director, Dr. Pamela Harvey gave us a list of previous semester’s studies and we saw that a group last year used Betulin. We studied it because we saw that it might have antimicrobial effects, and last year’s group’s data indicated that it needed to be replicable. Because of this, we did further research of why betulin might be an antibiotic or have antibiotic properties and saw that it was capable of inducing apoptosis in cells, which we found interesting. All of these factors combined made us want to further research this compound.
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Hello, how did you determine the difference between an antibiotic and probiotic?
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Great question! A probiotic would be something that is two standard deviations above the mean of our negative control. This indicates that it has a high absorbance value and a high concentration of bacteria, hence indicating that the bacteria grew. For antibiotics, they are values that are two standard deviations below the mean. These antibiotic values have low absorbance values because they have low concentrations because they either kill, or slow the growth of bacteria, meaning they are antibiotics.
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Hi, Can you explain how the max dose was determined?
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Hi- Yes! The max dose was not determined through tests. We learned in our class that the highest physiologically relevant dose at which drugs can be given to humans before they become unsafe or too toxic is 10uM. For this reason, we created our stock solution at the ‘max dose’, which was 10uM for reasons explained above, and tested how our compound acted on the Salmonella at its highest possible safe dose. This is why it was called our max dose.
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