S3 Week 14

Hey guys!

It is so great that the semester is ending. It was fun but majorly stressful. I hope you guys had a great semester and have your projects going well too.

Sadly I was not able to complete my project in time to get to the point of identifying each bacteria. I do believe that I have more data since last time but if only I did not run out of time. But at least the three test tubes that didn't grow previously finally grew on blood agar.

Hopefully the samples will not die in the fridge over the break. But I feel like each semester is a learning process on how to build a better project. I am actually excited for the Metro Tech presentations and I can't wait to see yours too.
I had a great time with the rest of you guys this semester, I'll miss you guys. Have a great break!

S3 Week 10

Hey guys! 

So this week I was just inoculating bacteria from the plates. There is seriously so much plates that I collected from people's faces. I wish I got less samples but you never know when you put too much on your plate until it is too late. I am honestly grateful for Amber guidance. She gave me so much help and gave me a lot of blood agar. This week I went to volunteer at Feed My Starving Children. It is a organization that packages food for children in need all over the world. They believe that children need healthy meals to focus in schools. If you guys never volunteered before, you should totes do it. My family struggled when they came to America and we received help. It feels really nice to give back to a community that does not have much and actually knowing the impact because you felt it before.

                                                

S3 Week 9

Hey guys!

So last week, I was wondering why my plates were not growing for certain skin types. I notice my oil and normal skin samples were not growing as fast as the dry and combination skin samples. The plates below are from Amber who has oily skin. These plates are her second set of plates I have done. At least there is more bacteria in these ones though. I have been consulting with Amber for my project. She had given so much tips. She gave me a list of all the media we have in the lab and how to conduct my project without wasting time. So I would need to find which media immediately differentiates a certain bacteria from the others. So wish me luck! 

S3 Week 12

Hey guys!
I am so happy the semester is almost to a close. I can not wait to be chilling at home and watching Netflix. But to get there we must not give up!
I do have 3 bacteria in TSB that is refusing to grow. I let it incubate in the 37℃ for 48 hours, then let it incubate at room temperature which is about 24℃ in the lab, and then I put it in the 42℃ incubator and still no growth. So I am leaving the 3 test tubes out at room temperature again and if they do not grow, then I think they are dead. My project is very tedious and I just got done today with inoculating all the bacteria from the TSA plates to the TSB tubes. So next week I will be able to do the identifying tests on the bacteria to find out what they are.

S3 Week 11

Hey guys!
Lol I always start every one of my blog posts with how far behind I have been in work. But this week I was so far behind with work. I lately been getting a lot of help from Amber. Some of my bacteria samples were not growing. So she told me to vortex them and let them sit at room temperature. So I did that and they finally grew. Each face sample area makes like 3+ TSA test tubes and it is tiring with how much tubes I am inoculating. It is just a lot and hopefully I can finish putting all of the plate's bacteria in tubes. I am very grateful for Hannah helping me inoculate some of the tubes. She is a life saver.

S3 Week 7

Hey guys! I started to write down the bacteria I am observing in my plates from the facial samples but I did not get very far haha. But I had talked to Amber when I was taking her facial swab and she told me great news. I already knew that there is different media for specific bacteria but she said there would be some for skin bacteria too in the lab. So that makes work so much more easier. I do not need to be hauling that bacteria identification book around anymore and doing various tests to discover what the potential bacteria might be. 

S3 Week 6

Hey guys! This week I took face samples of Maria, Hannah, and Marcus (photos of all their plates are shown below). I think I may be noticing some differences. But I have not had any time to look actually look at it. But I am really excited because last semester, I had a lot of samples from lovely women and not a lot from boys. But this semester, it is looking more even in the amounts of gender and skin types. I can not wait to see the results this semester. I am very grateful and thankful for everyone who has et me swab their skin so far.

S3 Week 5

Hey guys! This week I was not able to be in the lab because I had a sudden trip to Los Angeles for personal reasons. But expect results this week!

But my trip was fun, it was overall relaxing. Which is what I really needed right now. Life is too stressful. So I got to eat Jollibee for the first time. It is a popular Filipino chain restaurant that sells fried chicken and other Filipino foods. I had adobo rice and chicken joy. I got to visit the USC campus (picture below) and the surrounding area as well. I also got familiar with LA traffic which was not fun. I am glad to be back to continue with my project.

S3 Week 8

I have been to backed up with work and it has been a very busy last few weeks for me. Before I can get to my next step, I need to finish collecting samples. I still need oily and normal skin people, especially males since I have data from a lot of females. But I got new samples from Amber who has oily skin. Amber's plate for some reason did not grow except in one plate (lip top & bottom). Below are the pictures of her plates. I am wondering when I swabbed her face, did I rub the part of the cotton swab that did not touch her on the plate?

I got Brenton's face who I believe is normal. I touched his face to make sure but then I realized that I probably ruined my results. And he legit also just put a dirty ball to his face too. So now I have to redo his to ensure it is his skin bacteria I am growing.

S3 Week 4

Hey guys! This week has been hectic for me, but it is getting better. My dad just got discharged from the hospital so the rest of the week is looking up.  I have been able to only do Daisy's face swatches so far. I did change how I collect the face bacteria. I now do it on the natural habitat on the face. I used to have the subjects wash their face first. I do notice a change of bacteria amount. Maybe it is the change of methods?
I notice most people have combination skin (since it is the most common skin type) but I am in desperate need of people with normal and dry skin.

S3 Week 3

Happy Thursday! Hope you guys had a great a week. I was interested in wondering what my belly button bacteria looks like. I got the wonderful Daisy to do it too but she wanted to throw hers out >:( . But I was thinking I should try more body parts to incorporate? I knew belly button bacteria is wack, but i find it so cool that my belly button had that much bacteria. Don't come for me please and thanks. But I was not able to start my collecting data yet because I was making plates and getting the materials I need to start. Thank you to everyone who offered to be my subjects, you ill be definitely getting a call from me :) . 

 

S3 Week 2

This week I began to recreate the beginning stages of my project. I decided to read old articles. The problem with finding these articles on the internet is that they often do not explain  the research topic I would like. Most of the time the articles are linked to skincare products so they are not credible sources. Last year my research project had a few problems. I would focus on fixing the issues. I need a steady amount of participants. I would also need to chart the projects better with more consistency. I am excited for this new semester because I want to see better results with my project.



https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/03/the-citizen-science-of-skin-care/555125/

S3 Week 1

Hey guys! Long time no blog. Hope you guys had a great summer because I know I did. I went to Disneyland with my siblings and got to celebrate my birthdays for 3 days. Enough about my summer, so I wanted to do a trial run of my project. And I was trying a new collecting (which I will disclose next week) and I found that my face had less bacteria than my previous photo (listed below). I am really interested to know why that is and to see if I can find more bacteria on faces.  I can't wait to see what in store this semester :)

Bio: Burabari Akeeh

My name is Burabari Akeeh.  I am a student at Phoenix College and I am getting an Associate in Science. I plan to transfer to ASU and to get a bachelors in Biology. I have a huge interest in skin care and bacteria. So why not both? When I am not taking skin samples, I am catching up on my favourite shows.

S2 Week 12

So lately I have been doing catalase, oxidase, motility and FTM tests. But I forgot to take pictures of the catalase and oxidase. I had over 120 plates but each plates and each plate had different colour bacteria to test. I did not count but i had a rack and a half full of test tubes. Pretty obvious to say. I am tired but glad I am almost done. Thank GOD. The bacteria in the motility tubes (shown below) showed that the bacteria from my samples move. Some were of longer distance, others were of shorter distance. Even though these tests narrow down the bacteria, I still have it being a possibility of certain bacteria: Propionibacterium, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Corynebacterium, and some more.

S2 Week 11

This week I have been doing the motility and FTM tests on my bacteria (alongside with the oxidase and catalase but mostly FTM and motility). I honesly forgot to take pictures of the oxidase and catalase test. So if you did not know, FTM is also called Thioglycollate broth, which determines what the oxygen requirement for the bacteria. While doing the FTM tests, I noticed most were aerobic or faculative anaerobe but a few were aerotolerant anaerobes which was really really cool. The bacteria is most likely turning out to be Propionibacterium but there is traces of other possible bacteria.

S2 Week 13

So I have finished all of my tests on the skin bacteria. Thank God. I had samples from 11 people and each person had six plates for the different face region I took it from. Then I made streak plates for approximately all 66 plates. So I had approximately 120 plates to do tests on. I even had my sister help me do it to make it go faster. She is saying her name should go on my poster, but it is my project for a reason. I just spent this week getting photos of the plates for my poster. I am going to share them below. They look really cool too..
 

S2 Week 14

We are reaching our last week guys! I bet we are all excited to have this semester over. I know I am! The Metro Tech presentations are drawing near. Are you guys ready? I do not think I can say I am for a fact. I am so scared to present my poster by myself, it is only my second time doing a poster and my first time presenting by myself. Last time was so smooth because I had Rolanda by my side. I put in a lot of effort so I hope it goes well (fingers crossed)!? I wish you guys all the best luck on your posters and on your finals haha. Have a fun summer! :).