In your future directions, you said that you want to conduct a similar experiment using natural snail mucin as opposed to cosmetic. What is the difference between the two in terms of chemical composition and why might this difference be significant in its effect on Salmonella typhimurium growth?
Hi Morgan! So although the snail mucin is marketed as 100% natural snail mucin, we can not be sure that is accurate. There is some question of if the cosmetic is partially ethanol because of its smell and viscosity. So with that in mind, the chemical makeup of the cosmetic is likely different then the chemical makeup of 100% natural snail mucin. We hope that 100% natural snail mucin would be more successful in killing Salmonella Typhimurium compared to the cosmetic mucin because of its antimicrobial properties that have been proven in previous Drug Discovery experiments, where real mucin was acquired and tested.
Hey Nathan! We chose to study snail mucin because of previous success in the Drug Discovery lab, where real natural mucin was tested and looked promising. We decided to continue this research also because of the antibacterial properties that snails have. Snails live in a bacteria packed environment (dark and moist spaces like soil) so the idea is that there must be something enabling the snail to live in these settings. We wanted to explore the option of that “something” being their mucin.
Hi Chloe! We believe a repeat of the experiment would be worth it so we can either confirm, or deny that our results where because of human error. More trials will allow us to see if the downward trend continues, or if there is indeed no trend. We would have done this ourselves but because of resource and time constraints, we could not.
I know you mentioned you would want to use natural snail mucin. Is there another concentrate your would be interested in using? Or are you leaning towards only natural snail mucin?
Hey Gregory! This is a good question and is something that should definitely be explored down the line. We are leaning towards natural snail mucin because of it’s previous success in previous Drug Discovery experiments. However, if this natural snail mucin proves to be successful, or this cosmetic mucin is confirmed to work against Salmonella Typhimurium, the exact compound within these substances should be narrowed down and studied further. Typically in these experiments, it’s a certain chemical that makes the concentrate successful, not the entire concentrate.
In your future directions, you said that you want to conduct a similar experiment using natural snail mucin as opposed to cosmetic. What is the difference between the two in terms of chemical composition and why might this difference be significant in its effect on Salmonella typhimurium growth?
Hi Morgan! So although the snail mucin is marketed as 100% natural snail mucin, we can not be sure that is accurate. There is some question of if the cosmetic is partially ethanol because of its smell and viscosity. So with that in mind, the chemical makeup of the cosmetic is likely different then the chemical makeup of 100% natural snail mucin. We hope that 100% natural snail mucin would be more successful in killing Salmonella Typhimurium compared to the cosmetic mucin because of its antimicrobial properties that have been proven in previous Drug Discovery experiments, where real mucin was acquired and tested.
What exactly was special about snail mucin to make it seem like a possible solution for Salmonella typhimurium?
Hey Nathan! We chose to study snail mucin because of previous success in the Drug Discovery lab, where real natural mucin was tested and looked promising. We decided to continue this research also because of the antibacterial properties that snails have. Snails live in a bacteria packed environment (dark and moist spaces like soil) so the idea is that there must be something enabling the snail to live in these settings. We wanted to explore the option of that “something” being their mucin.
Could a repeat of this experiment be worth it if human error wasn’t taken into account the first time around?
Hi Chloe! We believe a repeat of the experiment would be worth it so we can either confirm, or deny that our results where because of human error. More trials will allow us to see if the downward trend continues, or if there is indeed no trend. We would have done this ourselves but because of resource and time constraints, we could not.
I know you mentioned you would want to use natural snail mucin. Is there another concentrate your would be interested in using? Or are you leaning towards only natural snail mucin?
Hey Gregory! This is a good question and is something that should definitely be explored down the line. We are leaning towards natural snail mucin because of it’s previous success in previous Drug Discovery experiments. However, if this natural snail mucin proves to be successful, or this cosmetic mucin is confirmed to work against Salmonella Typhimurium, the exact compound within these substances should be narrowed down and studied further. Typically in these experiments, it’s a certain chemical that makes the concentrate successful, not the entire concentrate.