I have no experience with cancer experiments. How's it done?

[bhh1988]

Suppose I wanted to know the effect of a particular vegetable extract on the growth of cancer cells. How would I test that and how would i measure that? I have had experience with bacteria so I know if I were to check something like that on bacteria, I'd probably soak some blank discs with the extract and measure the inhibition zones. What about cancer though? Thanks guys.

[donnahardy2]

Hi bhh1988,

Cancer cells can often be grown in the laboratories using a technique called tissue culture. The cancer cells are isolated and grown in flasks and fed special growth medium. To test the effect of a plant extract on the growth of the cells, you would simply add it to the medium and compare the growth rate and microscopic appearance of a control flask of cells to the experimental flask.

Our job here at science buddies is to help students design their science fair projects. An experiment involving growing tissue culture cells would require special equipment and seems like it would be too expensive and difficult to do, unless you had access to a tissue culture lab.

Your idea of testing vegetable extracts on the growth of bacteria could probably be developed into a good science fair project. You could design an experiment with independent and dependent variables, and your results would be quantitative. You would need bacteria, Petri dishes, and an agar growth medium. If you can get these items, I would recommend trying to do a project like this, if you have the time.

Please let us know if you need more suggestions for designing a suitable experiment.

Donna Hardy

[bhh1988]

Thanks for the help, but it's still a little unclear to me:
First of all, couldn't I buy cancer cells from like http://www.atcc.org?

Also, when you say compare the two flasks, how would I compare that quantitatively?

[donnahardy2]

Hi,

Most cell culture lines are derived from cancer cells, so yes, it would be possible to buy a cell line and do an experiment. Cell cultures are grown on plastic flasks until they cover the bottom of the flask. You could measure the number of cells grown per day (counting cells individually under a microscope with a hemocytometer), the total amount of cell protein produced (measured with a total protein assay, like the Bradford protein assay), or the time required for the cells to completely cover the flask. You would also look at the cells under a microscope and describe the visual appearance of the cells.

You can search for websites and find information about tissue culture techniques. It requires lots of equipment and special expertise to work with tissue cultures, so I really don't want to encourage you to do this unless you can find someone in a tissue culture lab who is willing to work with you. It really would be impractical, otherwise.

I would really like to help you pick a suitable topic for a science fair project. So, please let me know what you are interested in and I will try to suggest a suitable project. You sound like you are very ambitious and hard working, but I think you need something less complicated and less expensive than growing tissue culture cells.

Donna Hardy

[bhh1988]

well, I was interested in the effect of cooked garlic vs. raw garlic on cancer cells, since both the effect they have on cancer and whether cooked garlic or raw garlic is better are currently relatively uncertain. I think my school gets funding specifically for science fair projects, so my school should be able to pay a good deal of the cost. I mean, we're not talking about like a $500 experiment are we?

[donnahardy2]

Hi,

Yes, it would probably cost more than $500. Fetal calf serum, one of many components of the growth medium for cultured cells costs $90 per 100 mL, plus shipping, and you need to add at least 10% by volume to the growth medium.

What kind of equipment do you have available to work with? Do you have an incubator, microscope, autoclave (or pressure cooker)? Would you like to work with bacteria again? Does your teacher have any pure cultures of bacteria? When is your project due? How much money do you have to spend on your project?

Here are some ideas that I think could be developed into a project: 1. You could test fresh and cooked garlic extracts to see whether they affect bacterial growth. 2. Perhaps you could test the extracts on bacteriophage. 3. There is a test called an Ames test, which you could use to test if the garlic extracts cause mutations in a bacterium.

These ideas would not really compare with your cell culture project idea, but could be developed into a good experiment, with controls and measurable results. If you are interested in any of these ideas, let me know and I will give you more detailed suggestions. And, I'll try to think of some additional ideas.

Donna Hardy

[phamlinh]

Hi bh1988,

I agree with Donna. Tissue culture experiments are very expensive and impractical unless you have access to a lab at a university or company. It's simply not practical to set up these experiments at a normal high school, and a lot of the basic equipment is very expensive.

I think working on a project with bacteria or bacteriophage is much more practical for your purposes. If you're interested in other ideas, please post them and we'll try to help you hone your topic.

Best of luck,
Linh

[bhh1988]

thanks a lot for your input guys. I've decided to use bacteria instead, largely because of what you guys are telling me. I want to use Helicobacter pyloris since that is one of the main bacteria studied in relation to garlic's effects. However, I don't know how I would prepare Helicobacter pyloris. I could buy it off of ATCC.org, but there seems to be a lot of strains of Helicobacter pyloris and even when I get it, I don't know how i would culture it. I'm sure it's probably more complicated than culturing E. Coli. ANy ideas? Thanks!

[donnahardy2]

Hi bhh1988,

Helicobacter pylori is a pathogenic bacterium, and you would need to work in a class 2 biological hazard lab in order to grow it. I don't know about Helicobacter, but many pathogenic bacteria are notoriously difficult to culture in the lab. Heliocobacter would be an excellent subject for this study, but I don't think it would be feasible for you to work with it unless you had access to a suitable laboratory.

There are two major groups of bacteria; Gram-negative and Gram-positive, and I recommend that you do an experiment with both groups. The major difference between the two groups is the composition of their cell wall. E. coli is Gram-negative, so I would suggest working with this organism. Like Helicobacter pylori, it's also found in the human intestinal tract. For a Gram-positive organism, you could use yogurt bacteria, usually a mixture of Lactobacillus and Streptococcus species.

You had mentioned earlier that you had experience in growing bacteria. Do you know what you will need to get for this experiment?

Also, how are you going to prepare your garlic extracts? You will want to pay attention to every detail; when you write up your method, you need to include enough information so that anyone reading your procedure would be able to repeat the experiment and get exactly the same results.

This is a good time to write your purpose and hypothesis for the project. This will help you know what background research to do and also give you the basis for designing a good experiment. The science buddies website gives very helpful information for each stage of a science fair project. Why don't you look through the suggestions on this website to get started? If you go through step-by-step, I guarantee you'll have an excellent project.

Let us know if you have more questions about doing this project.

Donna Hardy