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Hello,
My idea for an upcoming science fair in early 2016 is to examine and record the effects of pesticides at the cellular level. I plan to obtain some common active ingredients found in pesticides like 2,4-d, acephate, etc. and test proliferation and viability on mammalian cells or human cells such as dermal fibroblasts. I plan to observe the cells daily for cell death, deterioration, or change in shape.
I have until mid December to complete my experiment, in your opinion do you believe that this is a doable project with the time frame I have? Is cell culturing a difficult process? Should I modify my experiment?
Thank you for your time, and any advice is welcomed and greatly appreciated.
Pesticides on Cells
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deleted-300250
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Re: Pesticides on Cells
Hi,
What an interesting and wonderful science fair project you have planned. The main problem that I see is that it isn't really possible to culture human or mammalian cells at home. You would need access to a university lab (a high school lab is unlikely to have the necessary equipment) to do these experiments. If you were already working with or at least searching for a university lab that could help you with your experiments than I would say that it is possible for you to finish your experiments in your time frame, but since I assume you do not have a lab willing to help you currently, I recommend you modify your experiments so that you do not need to use mammalian cells. I think you could do these experiments on bacteria fairly readily at home (especially looking at bacterial growth/death), or possibly plants.
I hope this helps, and please let us know what you decide and continue to ask any questions you have.
JMP
What an interesting and wonderful science fair project you have planned. The main problem that I see is that it isn't really possible to culture human or mammalian cells at home. You would need access to a university lab (a high school lab is unlikely to have the necessary equipment) to do these experiments. If you were already working with or at least searching for a university lab that could help you with your experiments than I would say that it is possible for you to finish your experiments in your time frame, but since I assume you do not have a lab willing to help you currently, I recommend you modify your experiments so that you do not need to use mammalian cells. I think you could do these experiments on bacteria fairly readily at home (especially looking at bacterial growth/death), or possibly plants.
I hope this helps, and please let us know what you decide and continue to ask any questions you have.
JMP
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deleted-300250
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- Project Question: Pesticides, and cell culture
- Project Due Date: December 2015
- Project Status: I am conducting my research
Re: Pesticides on Cells
Hello, Thank you for taking the time to reply to my post.
My high school has a a large science lab and is biotechnology based which has a lot of resources, and our teachers are very willing to order more supplies. If I wanted to use a simple mammalian cell, for example a skin cell, would I still not be able to grow them in the lab?
Or, what is a bacteria that you can recommend I use instead of a mammalian cell, that would be similar?
My high school has a a large science lab and is biotechnology based which has a lot of resources, and our teachers are very willing to order more supplies. If I wanted to use a simple mammalian cell, for example a skin cell, would I still not be able to grow them in the lab?
Or, what is a bacteria that you can recommend I use instead of a mammalian cell, that would be similar?
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Re: Pesticides on Cells
Hello!
If your school does have the necessary resources to culture a cell line, it is possible to grow them in a lab. It sounds like you are looking for primary cells, so checking out the ATCC website would give you more information on what exactly you will need and how to grow the cell lines: http://www.atcc.org/en/Products/Cells_a ... Cells.aspx
If this turns out not to be possible, you could use E.coli for your experiments. They are fairly easy to culture, and you would still be able to measure cell shape, survival, etc. It wouldn't be similar to a human cell line, but you could learn about whether the pesticides you are testing affects bacterial proliferation and viability.
Hope this helps!
-Surya
If your school does have the necessary resources to culture a cell line, it is possible to grow them in a lab. It sounds like you are looking for primary cells, so checking out the ATCC website would give you more information on what exactly you will need and how to grow the cell lines: http://www.atcc.org/en/Products/Cells_a ... Cells.aspx
If this turns out not to be possible, you could use E.coli for your experiments. They are fairly easy to culture, and you would still be able to measure cell shape, survival, etc. It wouldn't be similar to a human cell line, but you could learn about whether the pesticides you are testing affects bacterial proliferation and viability.
Hope this helps!
-Surya