Difference between revisions of "Team:Georgia State/Collaborations"

Our interest in our topic began when we were researching possible projects. What we found most interesting was a research paper from the Journal of Pakistan Medical Association that tested the efficacy of microwaving LB rather than autoclaving. Also, a project that inspired us was the project from the University of Calgary (2014) that tested the efficacy of a homemade wash for competent cells. From these projects, we asked ourselves: Could one conduct a synthetic biology project without access to a professional laboratory?

This summer, we created a cost effective alternative to lab grade Luria Broth (LB). To compare our homemade broth, J-Broth, and lab grade LB we compared optical densities of liquid cultures and transformation efficiency of competent cells. For each method of testing, we compared autoclaved LB, microwaved LB, and microwaved J-Broth.

We grew XL1-Blue E. coli cells in liquid culture of lab grade luria broth and J-broth. The media was either autoclaved or microwaved for 8 minutes at 650 Watts before the cells were added.
We then made competent cells out of XL1-Blue e. coli cells that were grown in each type of media following the Inoue method (Inoue, 1990) and calculated the transformation efficiency for comparison.