Making Enemies is Job #1

I started working at Lincoln University in December of last year. Since that time, a colleague and I have been sharing a lab with a faculty member and space has been tight. We were promised a larger lab right next to our office, but it has been previously used as sort of a community lab space by several researchers. And let's just say habits are hard to break. News went out a couple of weeks ago from university administration that the lab had been handed over wholly to my faculty supervisor. Last week my colleague and I watched with delight as equipment and supplies were cleared from the lab. Over the last couple of days, we have been finishing clearing equipment that won't be used and moving supplies into storage that we won't need.

Unfortunately (but not for me) some of the other researchers came by the lab looking for supplies that had already been tossed out. Oops. Sorry about your bad luck, but the lab was supposed to be cleared weeks ago, actually months ago. And pretty much everyone else in the building got mad because we stacked all of the unwanted equipment in the hallway so that LU Surplus Property could haul it away; they considered it an eyesore. So the equipment was scattered throughout other parts of the building where they would not be so obtrusive. My guess is that they will remain in those out-of-the-way corners for a few more decades. Or until the end of time. Whichever comes first.

The way I look at it: my purpose at LU is to help build the cooperative research program into an advanced, innovation-producing machine. It's difficult to do that with fifty-year-old instruments. My purpose at LU is not to make friends, and so I'm not going to worry too much about making a few enemies.

MUG: It's Not Just For Coffee Anymore

Recently, I have been playing around with a special cell culture media that uses a fluorescent indicator to signal the presence of E. coli bacteria. The culture media is a nutrient broth called LST-MUG, and is often referred to by its proprietary name, Hach media. The nutrient broth is similar to other types of cell culture media, with a couple of notable exceptions. First, the media contains surfactants that inhibit the growth of non-coliform organisms. This basically means that everything but E. coli is killed in the broth, allowing only E. coli to grow in the media. Second, the media contains a molecule called 4-methylumbelliferyl-β-D-glucuronide, or MUG. MUG is the part of the media that is responsible for indicating the presence of E. coli.

Under normal conditions, MUG emits very weak fluorescence at a wavelength down around where blue and UV meet, somewhere around 400 nm, when exposed to UV light. When MUG is introduced to E. coli, it is cleaved (or cut) into two separate smaller molecules by an enzyme within the bacteria called β-glucuronidase. One of the products of this cleavage reaction (the glucoronide part) is basically inert and does nothing at all. But the other product of the reaction is 4-methylumbelliferone, a highly fluorescent molecule. When exposed to the same UV light as before, the fluorescence of 4-methylumbelliferone is easily observable as a pale blue glow. In this way, the MUG acts a fluorogenic reporter of the presence of E. coli bacteria.

This bacterial growth media with the fluorescent reporter is commercially available and widely used to detect the presence of E. coli. However, it has some pitfalls. One problem with the media is that the sample to be tested must be introduced to the broth and then incubated, which is best done in a laboratory environment by a trained technician. A more pressing issue with the broth is its response time, which is 16-24 hours. If you are testing a sample of, say, raw beef, you would take a random in-line sample during processing and inoculate the Hach media. Twenty four hours later, a fluorescent signal is observed in the media, indicating that the beef is contaminated with E. coli. But that particular beef product is already on a truck on its way to the grocery store.

One of the projects that we're focusing on at LU's Center for Nanotechnology & Biosensors is a method for making this process much more effective and drastically faster, so that E. coli can be detected efficiently and contaminated products can be kept off of store shelves.

Will The Cat Kill Curiosity?

The cat may not kill curiosity, but the federal government just might. A continuous underestimate of the costs required to design, build, and deploy the newest Mars rover has made its future a bit uncertain. You can read more about the ongoing problems with the Mars Science Laboratory here.

I certainly hope that NASA is able to get their house in order with this project.

And speaking of Curiosity, I'll take this as a chance to remind you that NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has a live webcam in the cleanroom where the Mars rover is being assembled. It's pretty cool watching the rover come together, so I recommend following the link if you're interested in that sort of thing.