I believe I would aim for a 48 hour incubation time for my experiments instead of a 24 hour incubation period, as this would have allowed our phage to replicate more and thus would have been easier to use in future experiments, such as serial dilutions to create a web pattern plate. I would also like to perform DNA isolation again, as our results indicated our DNA was likely denaturing so we may have not been working fast enough during this procedure.
If you did incubate it for longer periods of time, does that have any affect on the efficacy of its use in replacement for antibiotics? It seems as though it may be more time consuming to produce and/or be effective for its intended use.
I totally hear where you are coming from! What we hope is that with a longer incubation period, our phage would have more time to reproduce with the M. smeg bacteria. This would have made using our lysate a little easier to work with as more phages would have been present, and could have helped also with our serial dilutions, as GrippySocks was not very virulent.
GrippySocks was not very virulent and thus was very difficult to work with, especially while working on creating a web pattern plate. We had to adjust our serial dilutions over multiple weeks, as we were not seeing enough plaques on our plates, which really halted our progress.
Some issues with phage therapy is that it can take researchers months to discover the correct phages to be used to treat a patient, and in some cases patients just do not have that kind of time. Another problem is the phages could induce an immune response from the patient, and thus rendering the tedious process unsuccessful.
I think that this presentation was very good. What is something that you would change regarding this experiment next time?
I believe I would aim for a 48 hour incubation time for my experiments instead of a 24 hour incubation period, as this would have allowed our phage to replicate more and thus would have been easier to use in future experiments, such as serial dilutions to create a web pattern plate. I would also like to perform DNA isolation again, as our results indicated our DNA was likely denaturing so we may have not been working fast enough during this procedure.
If you did incubate it for longer periods of time, does that have any affect on the efficacy of its use in replacement for antibiotics? It seems as though it may be more time consuming to produce and/or be effective for its intended use.
I totally hear where you are coming from! What we hope is that with a longer incubation period, our phage would have more time to reproduce with the M. smeg bacteria. This would have made using our lysate a little easier to work with as more phages would have been present, and could have helped also with our serial dilutions, as GrippySocks was not very virulent.
Where did you get the idea to use grippy socks?
GrippySocks was not very virulent and thus was very difficult to work with, especially while working on creating a web pattern plate. We had to adjust our serial dilutions over multiple weeks, as we were not seeing enough plaques on our plates, which really halted our progress.
What are some cons of phage therapy and how it could react in the human body?
What are some cons of phage therapy and how it reacts in the human body?
Some issues with phage therapy is that it can take researchers months to discover the correct phages to be used to treat a patient, and in some cases patients just do not have that kind of time. Another problem is the phages could induce an immune response from the patient, and thus rendering the tedious process unsuccessful.