I am curious about your future direction in which you mentioned quantifying survival of bacteria in a well. How does that relate to your compound and chemotherapy research?
That is a great question! The quantity of bacteria that survives in our vials is important because if the bacterial amount exceeds normal values, it can lead to a bacterial infection in the flies food. This occurred in our lab and caused limitations to our experiment because the flies did not develop which left us with about 10 or less flies in each vial instead of around 50.
What steps do you think would be necessary to limit some of your issues that messed with your data? What would you do next time to improve your experiments and outcomes?
I think the next steps that would be necessary to limit some of the issued that occurred would be to count the exact number of larvae that are put into each vial and test more than one trial. One thing I would do next time to improve our experiment and outcome would be to test in multiple trials and test other compounds found in bitter melon as well.
You mentioned there might have been some problems with the model organism and food while testing. Have you thought about what some of those problems might have been?
I think the reason why our controls dd not work as they should have was because of complications with bacteria in our food as well as uncertain quantity of flies in each vial. I think that one of our samples did yield a result because that vial contained 10 flies which was more than our other experimental vials, so there were more flies to test on.
I am wondering if you collected your sample from a different brand of grape juice or artificial grape juice if the results would be the same or if it is clear that any results could be collected?
That is a good question! The grape juice that we used did not display any errors, however our food that was fed to the flies once in the vials did wind up with a bacterial infection. So I do not think that the type of grape juice effected the reproduction quantity of the flies, but that would be interesting to see!
Are there any other model organisms that are used in these types of experiments, since so many of yours died, would there have been a better model organism you could have used?
The only model organism that I know of in this type of experiment are the drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly). In my opinion the drosophila melanogaster flies were the best model organism to use because their life span is short, they are inexpensive, share around 75% of the same DNA as humans, and reproduce rapidly.
I am curious about your future direction in which you mentioned quantifying survival of bacteria in a well. How does that relate to your compound and chemotherapy research?
That is a great question! The quantity of bacteria that survives in our vials is important because if the bacterial amount exceeds normal values, it can lead to a bacterial infection in the flies food. This occurred in our lab and caused limitations to our experiment because the flies did not develop which left us with about 10 or less flies in each vial instead of around 50.
What steps do you think would be necessary to limit some of your issues that messed with your data? What would you do next time to improve your experiments and outcomes?
I think the next steps that would be necessary to limit some of the issued that occurred would be to count the exact number of larvae that are put into each vial and test more than one trial. One thing I would do next time to improve our experiment and outcome would be to test in multiple trials and test other compounds found in bitter melon as well.
You mentioned there might have been some problems with the model organism and food while testing. Have you thought about what some of those problems might have been?
Hi! That is a great question! The problem that occurred with our food was a bacterial infection.
Why do you think the controls did not show expected results, but the samples did yield results?
I think the reason why our controls dd not work as they should have was because of complications with bacteria in our food as well as uncertain quantity of flies in each vial. I think that one of our samples did yield a result because that vial contained 10 flies which was more than our other experimental vials, so there were more flies to test on.
I am wondering if you collected your sample from a different brand of grape juice or artificial grape juice if the results would be the same or if it is clear that any results could be collected?
That is a good question! The grape juice that we used did not display any errors, however our food that was fed to the flies once in the vials did wind up with a bacterial infection. So I do not think that the type of grape juice effected the reproduction quantity of the flies, but that would be interesting to see!
Are there any other model organisms that are used in these types of experiments, since so many of yours died, would there have been a better model organism you could have used?
The only model organism that I know of in this type of experiment are the drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly). In my opinion the drosophila melanogaster flies were the best model organism to use because their life span is short, they are inexpensive, share around 75% of the same DNA as humans, and reproduce rapidly.
What methods did you use to coat the larva with the chloragenic acid?