Closing Up Shop and Preparing the Next Generation – Nick

The past four weeks have been pretty slow in comparison to the rest of the time this experiment was being carried out. If you couldn’t tell from the title of this particular post, these past weeks have pretty much been damage assessment and cleanup protocol. This is why I was not able to recover anything biological because I have reached 100% mortality rate and I am not able to continue the tests. After considering where I am in the semester and where I will have to be in the experiment, I have decided to close up shop.

Managing Algal Growth and Possible Solutions – Nick

Since my last blog post, there has been A LOT going on. However, I regret to inform you all that most of the events in the past couple weeks are not positive. Now, we must keep in mind that this is a biology project which means that there is going to be plenty of room for error in the experiment.

Managing Algal Growth and Plan Moving Forward – Nick

    The last two weeks have been pretty slow compared to the rest of the time in the experiment. This is because the main focus of the past weeks have mainly been algae control and tank cleanliness. This has been difficult to maintain because the local aquarium does not have any snails in stock.

Managing Water Parameters and Increasing Biotic Factors – Nick

    These two weeks have completely turned my project around. This is because there was a lot of forward progress and positive results. However, there is still a lot to accomplish still before I can start the experiment.

Genitourinary Cancer Research: a new problem

Over the course of the past week, we ran multiple tests on the viability of the cells using NanoEntek’s cell counter. We were hoping for the 20% viability of the cells, previously measured, to rise to an ideal 70%. One hypothesis was that the cell counter was not working properly, however, after upon review in the inverted microscope (manual cell counting), we determined that the cells were far too small to be seen even under 40x magnification.

Introducing the Coral Frags into the Tanks – Nick

   Ever since the first semester, there has been a lot of work going on both inside and outside of the classroom. Whether it’s calling Zack, cleaning the tanks, completely emptying and resetting the tank, or even just doing regular water tests. There has also been a lot of roadblocks in the process of setting up the experiment.

Genitourinary Cancer Research: Research Begins – Dhillon

I began the process of my research by culturing the complete growth medium for the initial culturing of the cells and future subculturing of the cells. Additionally, the cell line, NBT-ii, has come from ATCC and I have cultured it under the guidance of Teacher Leslie.

Managing the Tanks Over Break and Returning from Break – Nick

      I was extremely excited over break as well as my return because of how much the experiment would progress. The next phase of the project was organizing the stabilization of the water in the tanks, figuring out the specifics on our actual coral specimens, then we had to sort out how we are going to set up the platform in which we are going to place the corals, and we had to finalize plans on the lighting fixture.

Genitourinary Cancer Research: a setback – Dhillon

(University Seal [Photograph]. (n.d.). Retrieved from West Chester University
database)

I thought it would be smooth sailing after Thanksgiving break, and I could begin my research. However, after meeting with T. Mariska who brought into light some issues. We have decided to push back research till after Winter break. During our meeting, we discussed possibilities regarding storage as well as the length it would take to culture my cells. After further discussions, we have established that it may be best for me to begin research after winter break. This is because of the short turnaround between Thanksgiving and Winter Break. The estimated cost of the needed FBS (Fetal Bovine Serum), NBT-ii cell line, and the medium is about $1,189.00.

Assembling My Experiment and Beginning Water Stabilization -Nick

This has been the most exciting two weeks so far in the duration of this project. This is because all of my materials arrived, so I was able to start to assemble my experiment. This also meant that all of my knowledge about my experiment and my procedure because I needed to properly compile all of my materials and place everything with intention and purpose.