Step 1: Bacteria Preparation

To start our experiment, we should create an optimal growth medium, which is enriched nutrient agar for our bacteria; Vibrio anguillarium. This optimal temperature for the medium is 25ºC.

To avoid precipitation and to ensure aeration we place our bacteria in a “shaker” which optimizes the growth of the bacteria.

After the bacteria have grown, they are recovered from the erlenmeyer and put in a spectrophotometer cuvetter. After that they are put in OD 600 for concentration measurement. We measure the concentration to be able to determine how much we should dilute the culture.

The bacteria is recovered from the erlenmeyer and placed in a falcon tube, then enriched agar is poured on it. We assemble them in a falcon tube to be able to reach the desired concentration which is imperative for the experiment.

To avoid precipitation and to ensure aeration we place our bacteria in a “shaker” again.

As we recover our bacteria from the shaker, we place them in microphuge tubes for further use.

To maintain the young and reproducible state of bacteria, we place them in the deep freezer which is at -80ºC.

We have a stock of bacteria which we will use later on to prepare different petri dishes to carry out the experiments.

Now that the diluted cultures are ready, we pipette them on the petri dishes, getting them ready for further experiments.

Step 2: Bacteriophage and Culture Preparation

Inspired by the lecture of Prof. Dr. Şule Arı, we set our responsibility to accomplish what she emphasized to be indispensable. During the alumni gathering of our high school, “Petit Pain”, we set a stand, handing out flyers, explaining each and everything why the use of antibiotics should be prevented. Even Mr. Mehmet Erbak, the CEO of Uludag beverages, offered us his sponsorship after observing our presentation.

We wanted our friends in school to be aware of this serious matter as well. So we prepared a detailed presentation to be presented to the whole school. We laid emphasis on why we should prevent the unnecessary usage of antibiotics and how to do it. We briefed them how our project would serve this lofty purpose.

Moreover, we introduced our subject to the biology course. Now the classes who have the related subjects to our project, are able to examine our work. With this addition to the curriculum we are able to reach a good deal more students.