Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi Experimenter,

This evening should be a good time!

Thanks for your patience,

Madeline

Sorry! Just saw this. If you are available I will upload in the next 5 minutes

Hi Madeline,
I have uploaded my file. Please let me know your suggestions.

Hi Experimenter,

Thanks! I've downloaded it and look forward to reviewing it this evening.

If you want to, you can delete it now!

Madeline

Thank you so much!

Hello Experimenter,

I have reviewed your very interesting project! It is truly ambitious and covers some important health problems. However, I am concerned that by including the 3 major sections, you don't have room within the slide limit to provide several essential details that judges will be looking for.

Some of the key details which judges will look for include:

1. number of trials/experimental units tested for each treatment group
2. description of the control groups and number of trials/experimental units included in each control group
3. how long each group was treated before you start the process to measure response
4. If this project will be at ISEF 2022, I would expect most judges would prefer to see the above items addressed rather than having photos of your lab workbench and test tubes (slide #3).

It might be helpful if you looked at the format for Lab Methods and Stat Methods in papers in journals such as Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (see ASM).

5. Also to gain space, perhaps slide 4 could include a sentence or 2 describing the Resazurin assay instead of the photos.
6. The references are unreadable, in such small type font. Perhaps to save space and be able to use a font size that is readable, you could use [3] Yang et all, rather than include the entire reference. (where [3] refers to the reference number in your References slide)

I also have a couple more specific questions/suggestions:

7. Background research. I don't see a slide with the label, but it looks like you've included some of that info in the 2 slides labeled "Introduction." There are several statements of facts that do not include a reference. Again as I suggest in #6 above, you could use the form "[3] Yang et al" in the slides.

8. I'm a bit confused about how the Analysis of Variance analyses were done? Could you clarify how the values of the F-statistics and p-values are related? What software did you use? You might consider showing the ANOVA table from running that software.

And how the graphs shown in Fig 1 (Slide 6) relate to the ANOVAs. And, how you calculate Inhibition efficacy?

9. I'm also confused how about Section 3. Computational Backup.

How is the info presented in this section "a backup" to the info in your first 2 sections?

Maybe there you could find a title for that section that provides more clarity?

As above, it would be useful to describe the number of samples included in the analyses, as well as describe the methods and work flow use for the QIIME2 and PICRUSt. For example, describe the software used for these, and which variables/features were included in the principal components analysis.

Lots of questions and suggestions! Let me know what I've written does not make sense.

I hope some of this does make sense and that you can find room in your slides to include some of the info I suggest, perhaps by removing some of the photos of the lab equipment!

Thanks for sharing your slides and best of luck!

Madeline

Thank you so much! I will work on these.

Great! Let me know if you have any questions!

Madeline

Other than the comments you suggested for the procedure, was there anything that was confusing or should I be more specific in general?

You could be specific about the bacteria/fungal concentration in the inocula and specific about the drug concentrations.

Also, it would be good to describe your what might be the necessary next steps from your project, how to move forward from these in vitro findings toward Phase I, II, and Phase III trials for clinical applications, e.g., dose and route, timing, etc.