POSTER SESSION II, HS-001
EFFECT OF SURFACE AREA:VOLUME ON BACILLUS THURINGIENSIS GROWTH
Brisa Barrientos (1), Sebastian Acosta (1), Anapaula Lopez (2) Nalley Perez (2) Anthony Bailey (3)
(1) La Joya ISD, La Joya, Texas, USA; (2) UTRGV Math and Science academy, UTRGV, Brownsville, Texas, USA; (3) College of Education, UTRGV, Edinburg, Texas ,USA;
Humans can become infected with the Zika virus from mosquito bites. Thus, controlling the mosquito population is important. Most forms of controlling insect populations, including mosquitos, are through chemical pesticides. However, exposure to chemical pesticides has been linked to short- and long-term health problems affecting almost every organ system in the human body. Efforts to identify natural or organic pesticides have led to the finding that Bacillus
thuringiensis (Bt), a bacteria found in the soil has pesticidal properties. Bt produces a crystal protein that make it toxic to mosquito larvae.
The purpose behind this project is to design a closed system prototype that will result in the largest amount of bacteria growth. We investigated the surface area to volume ratio (SA:V) for growing Bacillus thuringiensis. Containers with different SA:V were designed using SolidWorks and created with a 3-D printer. It was hypothesized that the container with the largest SA:V ratio will have more bacteria growth.
The hypothesis is partially supported by the evidence as the largest surface area to volume ratio gave the greatest amount of Bt growth. However, the relationship between SA:V and mass of Bt was not linear, as the trendlines indicated a polynomial function as indicated by the R^2 value.
POSTER SESSION II, HS-002
EFFECT OF HUMIDITY ON GROWTH ON BACILLUS THURINGIENSIS
Miguel Lazo (1), Ruben Torres (1), Isaac Graza (1), Adrian Suarez (1), Anthony Bailey (2)
(1) La Joya ISD, La Joya, Texas, USA; (2) Vanguard Mozart, Vanguard academy, Alamo, Texas USA; (3) College of Education, UTRGV, Edinburg, Texas ,USA
Humidity is the measure of water vapor content of the air. Water is a main factor for bacterial growth, water helps bacteria dissolve food to produce energy for growth.
According to NASA, the greatest humidity rate in the Hidalgo county where from the months March - November, reaching a maximum rate of 96% humidity. There is a mosquito problem that has been spreading diseases around the world like Malaria, Zika, Ebola, etc. Understanding the effects of humidity on Bt growth has the potential to improve the pesticidal properties of Bt and control mosquito growth.
UTRGV SCHOOL OF MEDICINE | RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM 110 The purpose of the project was to design and build a closed system humidity chamber and to test how humidity affects growth of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). It was hypothesized that Bt growth will be greater if the relative humidity is higher. Samples were collected from from 5 plates in the control and 5 plates in the humidity chamber. The average mass at 60% (control) humidity was 110.2 mg and the average mass at 110% (experimental) humidity was 121.4 mg. Prior research states spores swell in response to higher relative humidity. Water is a main factor for bacterial growth, water helps bacteria dissolve food to produce energy for growth. The next step will to culture bacteria in liquid broth. Liquid cultures can be placed in desiccator or drying chamber and allowing for more accurate mass measurements.
POSTER SESSION II, HS-003
OXYGEN VS CARON DIOXIDE AND THE GROWTH OF BACILLUS THURINGIENSIS
Sergio Acosta (1), Alejandro Ibarra (1), Denisse Gonzalez (2), Christian Reyes (3) Anthony Bailey (4)
(1) La Joya ISD, La Joya, Texas, USA; (2) Vanguard Academy, Alamo, Texas, USA; (3) Texas High School for Health Professions, Mercedes, Texas, USA; (4) College of Education, UTRGV, Edinburg, Texas, USA
Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a facultative anaerobe, rod-shaped, gram-positive spore-forming bacteria. A Japanese biologist name Ishiwatari isolated Bt when he was investigating a disease that kills large amount of silkworms. Over the years, new findings for Bt gave rise to a new form of biological pesticide. Scientists discover that Bt can act as pesticide, because it produces the cry protein which is an insecticidal toxin including mosquitos.
This research is important because it helps find new ways for Bt to kill mosquito larvae and other pesticides. Mosquitos can pose serious health problems as they carry the Zika and other viruses. Given that Bt is a facultative anaerobe, the purpose of this experiment was to investigate the growth of Bt under different O^2 and CO^2 ratios.
YT agar plates were inoculated with Bt and placed in a closed chamber. After 72 hours the average mass of Bt was 55.5 mg for the control and 117.3 mg for the experimental group. The average O2:CO2 for the control group was 1.51 and 20.6 for the experimental group. The data from this experiment support our hypothesis because the group with more CO2 and a lower O2:CO2 produced more Bt. Because Bt is known to be a facultative anaerobe, it does not require O2 to carry out normal processes. However, in the presence of oxygen they would “switch” to an aerobic process. This finding is significant because it suggests that large scale production of Bt as a biological pesticide might be improved by
adjusting the level of CO^2.
POSTER SESSION II, HS-004
EFFECTS OF TEMPERATURE ON SYNTHESIS OF BACILLUS THURINGIENSIS
Angel Lopez (3), Agustin Lara (2), Eduardo Villalpando (2), Lisa Solis (1), Emannuel Matamoros (3), Anthony Bailey (4) (1) Vanguard Mozart, Vanguard Academy, Alamo, Texas, USA; (2) Vanguard Rembrandt, Vanguard Academy, Pharr, Texas, USA; (3) La Joya ISD, La Joya, Texas, USA; (4) College of Education, UTRGV, Edinburg, Texas ,USA
UTRGV SCHOOL OF MEDICINE | RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM 111
Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a soil-dwelling bacteria. It is commonly used as a biological pesticide as an alternative to chemical pesticides. Bt is able to produce a type of toxin that can kill specific types of pests, such as mosquito larvae. Bt is used as a pesticide in some environments that have large populations of mosquitoes in order to prevent a disease outbreak, for example, the Zika virus. Bt is used as a pesticide because it is able to kill pest such as mosquito larvae it is also used in that way because it is made up of natural components, not chemicals and it will not disturb the crops or the health of the consumers.
The purpose of the research was to identify what is the optimum temperature to grow Bacillus thuringiensis and grow the most toxic cry proteins. This could help farmers control pests that damage the crops with an organic pesticide instead of harmful chemical pesticides that contaminate crops and further causing human health problems. It was hypothesized that Bt will grow faster at higher temperatures.
The data from the experiment partially supports the hypothesis that increased temperature will increase the growth rate of Bt. The final mass of Bt in both trials was greatest at higher temperature of 37oC. However, the cold temperature showed the greatest growth rate over 72 hours. One explanation is that as the bacteria are being produced at higher temperatures. We are not certain why the cold temperature showed a greater growth rate, but is something we plan to investigate in the future.
POSTER SESSION II, HS-005
TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE ON DIABETIC RETINOPATHY PREVENTION AND TREATMENT Haider Ahsan (1), Brenda Bin Su (2)
(1) High Scholar Program, Department of Mathematics and Sciences, UTRGV, Edinburg TX, USA; (2) Department of Biomedical Sciences, School of Medicine, UTRGV, Edinburg, TX, USA
Diabetic Mellitus (DM) is a highly common complication that affects a large part of the world population. An estimated 60-70% of the developing world’s population still relies on traditional medications to treat complications like DM. DR development is more prevalent in Mexican Americans with estimation of 34% as compared to non-Hispanic White Americans (26.4%), in individuals with type 2 diabetes. The current prevention strategy is to control glucose using insulin or metformin drugs. With the diabetes management recommended by modern medicine and also depending on diabetic patients’ lifestyle, DR is actually the most common cause of new cases of blindness in adults who live in developed countries and are between the ages of 20 and 74. Therefore, more effective treatment and prevention are needed urgently. The aim of this study is to summarize the literatures on preventing and treating DR using traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Based on the theory of TCM, the pathogenesis of DR is due to blood stasis that damages collateral vessels in the eye. Retrospective cohort studies showed that TCM can work in some diabetic complications such as diabetic retinopathy, diabetic gastroparesis and diabetic kidney disease. The data from animal models and clinical trials in DR patients have demonstrated that Chinese medicine named compound Danshen Dripping Pill (CDDP) can improve the condition of DR. In addition, CDDP has been shown with a good safety record. A randomized, double-blind, placebo- controlled multicenter clinical trial (10 hospitals in China) of 223 patients with non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy were divided to treatment group and placebo group. The results demonstrated that danshen-containing Chinese herbal medicine (CDDP) is able to delay the progression of early-staged diabetic retinopathy. The application of TCM may also provide benefits to Mexican American who has risk to develop diabetes and to prevent diabetic complication.
UTRGV SCHOOL OF MEDICINE | RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM 113