A Novel Use of Diatoms for Endotoxin Detection

Overview

Objectives/Goals Goal 1 - Grow the diatoms Goal 2 - Get the diatom to engulf the LAL molecule - to create packaging for LAL Goal 3 - The LAL engulfed diatom must detect endotoxin consistently and accurately Goal 4 - Create standard curve of the test Goal 5 - Manipulate the diatoms to grow on a flat surface - to create a prototype of the home test kit Methods/Materials Materials: Diatoms, LAL test, CR1-S/CR1-SD, TSB, flat objects (slides), Antibiotic cocktail. Methods: Melt soft agar and add diatom culture in it. Perform Pasteur Pipette Method. Observe for growth. Add TSB and Antibiotic Cocktail. Aspirate and discard. Perform LAL Test. Read at photospec at 410 nm. Grow diatoms on flat surface. Perform LAL test. Incubate. Observe. Create a 3 times dilution series of the LAL test Read on the photospec at 410 nm. Add diatoms and wait for the diatom to absorb LAL molecule. Read under photospec at 410 nm. Grow diatoms in a solution. Add flat surface to the solution. Observe results. Results Goal 1 # The diatoms grew successfully in the TSB solution Goal 2 # From the readings of the photo spectrometer, the LAL was engulfed by the diatom, thus successfully using the diatom to create packaging for the LAL Goal 3 - The LAL engulfed diatom changed color accurately in the presence of endotoxin. Goal 4 # A standard curve was made to allow for toxic levels of endotoxin be determined Goal 5 # Through the starvation of silica, the diatoms grew consistently on the flat glass surface, thus creating a prototype for an endotoxin detection home test kit. Conclusions/Discussion Though I reached my intended goals, I am working on the following experiments to fine tune my test. Develop a method to uniformly grow diatoms on a surface Test with other types of diatoms Look for other uses of test in water and food industry

Awards (1)

• Honorable Mention

Competition history

• CSEF 2010 Microbiology · Entry S1702

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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