Hi Abi! Phage therapy can be used to treat bacterial infections, but is especially useful in cases where bacteria have become antibiotic resistant. In these cases, traditional antibiotic treatment methods are not effective and instead, specialized phages that can target these particular bacteria can be used to eradicate the infection.
Despite having completed restriction digest, our reasoning for not investigating the cluster through PCR was that our restriction digest results were hard to interpret, leading us to want to complete a better run before continuing on to PCR. Unfortunately, we ran out of time before we could do this, but this would definitely be our next step.
We did not complete a cluster investigation through PCR as our restriction digest results were hard to interpret. Thus, our next steps would definitely involve completing a (hopefully) better restriction digest that would allow us to predict the cluster and test our prediction through PCR.
What can phage therapy be used for?
Hi Abi! Phage therapy can be used to treat bacterial infections, but is especially useful in cases where bacteria have become antibiotic resistant. In these cases, traditional antibiotic treatment methods are not effective and instead, specialized phages that can target these particular bacteria can be used to eradicate the infection.
Where specifically did you collect your soil from on campus?
Our soil sample was found in the Norlin Quad area, specifically near the Ekeley building.
Why did you not conduct a cluster or PCR within your experiment after you found out your phage was lytic?
Despite having completed restriction digest, our reasoning for not investigating the cluster through PCR was that our restriction digest results were hard to interpret, leading us to want to complete a better run before continuing on to PCR. Unfortunately, we ran out of time before we could do this, but this would definitely be our next step.
We did not complete a cluster investigation through PCR as our restriction digest results were hard to interpret. Thus, our next steps would definitely involve completing a (hopefully) better restriction digest that would allow us to predict the cluster and test our prediction through PCR.