Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi,

I am trying to finalize a biofilm project and wanted to look at pseudomonas fluorescens with biophag and mucus.
I am being told that it not advisable to grow biofilm at home. I have done oil and algae experiments last year from home succesfully. Is biofilm difficult and unsafe to grow? another idea I had is to do biocement experiment but the bactrerium
Sporosarcina pasteurii seems to be very expensive to order?

Can some help me?

Regards,
Varun

Hi Varun,

Welcome to Science Buddies! This is a really great project idea, however, the rules for doing microbiology projects have changed, and since growing a biofilm would involve working with live bacteria, it is now necessary to do these projects in a laboratory. Here are the current rules:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ents.shtml

It’s a little amusing because everyone has biofilms growing at home. If you have a pet water dish, it probably has a little layer of slime ( biofilm ) that grows up every day. Any pipes that contain water will have biofilm. And, everyone has biofilm on their teeth. However, if you are planning to grow the bacteria in a Petri dish, you will need to do this in a lab.

What are your planning to do for your project? Why do you need Sporosarcina pasteurii? Any bacterium will form a biofilm


Donna Hardy

Hi Donna,

Thanks for your quick response.

Some ideas I had for bioflim testing were:
reactions to nutrients and temperature
growth on different substrates
against different anti-bacterial agents/which are most effective.

The Sporosarcina pasteurii cause calcification and can change the soil strength. But this seems to be expensive to purchase. Research is being done to develop biocement. But again, looks the rules do not allow me to use this at home.

If bacterial biofilms are not allowed for a home experiment then can you give any pointers for algal or yeast biofilm experiment.

Regards,
Varun

Hi Varun,

I will look for a biofilm project that uses algae or yeast for you. Please let me know if you have a spectrophotometer available at your school. Or would you need to complete the entire project at home?

In the meantime, you can try contacting the environmental science and microbiology departments of local universities and ask if there is a culture of Sporosarcina pasteruii available. Frequently, researchers are willing to share cultures so there may be someone who will give you a culture. You can acknowledge the gift on your project board.

Donna Hardy

Dear Donna,
Thank you so much for your help. I am eager to get my project started.
For the spectrophotometer, I have contacted a lab called BioCurious in Sunnyvale and they have just acquired one. Also I am going to contact my high school and some local universities. I will keep you updated on my progress. What type of projects can I do if a this instrument is available.
Regarding the other idea, there are two places that are doing research. I have requested them for a sample from them, but no response yet.
Thanks again,
Varun

Hi Varun,

It sounds like you are doing all the right things to get started. Here are some ideas that might help you identify a specific research question on biofilms that you could answer with a controlled experiment. Just read through and see if an idea appeals to you:

Here is a project on a microbial fuel cell from the Science Buddies website. The production of an electric current depends on the formation of a biofilm on the anode electrode of this device:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p026.shtml

Here is a basic project that explores how biofilms form on different surfaces. The bottles in the photographs are coated with algae.

http://thehomeschoolscientist.com/biofilm-experiment/

Here is a website for the center for biofilm engineering, which gives a picture review of various topic on biofilm research, and it includes scientific references that you could reach to learn more about the experimental protocols. There are several interesting topics and there is also an e-mail address for the organization that you can write to for more information. One of the topics is mineral transformation, so maybe they would know where you could obtain a culture of Sporosarcina pasteurui.

http://www.biofilm.montana.edu/files/CB ... oster4.pdf

Do an internet search for Google Scholar and then search for biofilms and other terms related to your topic. The results of the search will give you abstracts without the complete article, but this should be useful For example, here is a complete article on biocementation. I noticed that one references used Bacillus cereus instead of Sporosarcina.

There are a few hundred articles that might be of interest to you. Some of the references using algal biofilms for wastewater treatment and biofuel production look interesting.

http://cdn.intechweb.org/pdfs/28663.pdf

And, finally, since you might have access to a spectrophotometer, you might be able to set up an assay to measure biofilms by staining the biofilm with crystal violet.

I recommend that you spend some more time doing background reading so you can identify the perfect topic for your science project. Let us know if you have more questions.

Donna Hardy

Dear Donna,
Thank you so much for your help. I have decided on a project idea and am pretty excited about it. This has been very helpful and I will keep you posted.
Thank you,
Varun

Hi Varun,

This is good news. I'm happy you were able to find a project idea that you can do and that you are interested in. Good luck to you and please do post again if you have any more questions.


Donna Hardy