Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

There have been numerous studies confirming that bacteria placed in microgravity environments become more virulent. My project focuses on instead of decreasing the effects of gravity actually increasing the stress from gravity on bacteria and would this decrease the virulence of the bacteria instead of increasing it. Currently scientists test the increased virulence of the bacteria by injecting it into mice and comparing the time it takes to kill them. Now since this is prohibited, I have read articles that say because of the similarity between the immune systems of insects and mammals that insects could be used to determine whether the bacteria has become less virulent or not. My question is whether this experiment is feasible for a high school student and if what are the bio-hazard levels of bacteria above which students are forbidden to work with.
Thank you for time and answers .

Hi,

I suggest you speak to your science teacher about what sort of bacteria you can use since you would (presumably) be using the school's facilities unless you can find a mentor at a university for this project. My suggestion would be to work with a known insect pathogen that is harmless to humans; you will probably not be allowed to work with a human pathogen. That is obviously not ideal, but I don't think a judge would penalize you for not working with something you were not allowed to work with!