• Question: how do you prepare bacteria? it kinda sounds weird...

    Asked by anon-200687 to Jordan on 12 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Jordan Kirby

      Jordan Kirby answered on 12 Mar 2019:

      Hey! Sorry for taking so long to get back to this, ive been ill over this weekend :).

      SO when i say i prepare bacteria what i actually mean is that i grow it up to a usable level for my work. The process itself is pretty simple, near the end of the day i go to my -80oC stocks of bacteria in this really really cold freezer (which for all intents and purposes are frozen so cold enough that all of their cellular functions cease to function) and then using a needle i take a small icicle of bacteria and place them into a liquid media (E.coli which i work with alot absolutely love somthing called Luria Broth… think of it being a drink containing everything that the bacteria needs to grow and thrive).
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      I then place them in a big shaking incubator overnight (it shakes them in a circle to keep all the bacteria floating happily in the liquid media) for usually 16hours.
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      When i come in the morning i check the culture to see how well they have grown and if they have grown enough i begin my work and experements on them that day!
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      Keeping fresh cultures is super important in my line of work as bacteria have a tendency to change their behavior as they get older, so making a new culture is key!
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      I Hope that answers your question and if not let me know and i can go over more below in the comments 🙂

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