Katie U.R: Its a Shark-saster!

So in the last week I thought I would have to give up my project on bacteria in sharks, but luckily Professor Woodall handled all of the issues that were piling up, so big thank you to her! While she was handling that, I was scrambling to find a facility who would allow me to do my testing in their lab. I emailed countless facilities that specialized in either bacteria or in sharks. Everyone kept coming back to me saying that their labs were already filled with projects and everything. So I was almost going to give up and just choose another project but tonight I got two amazing emails, one from Woodall and another from a lady by the name of Andriana Fragola. Ms. Fragola is apart of the University of Miami Shark Research Center. She told me to give her the details of my project and she would see if she was able to help out with anything since she is familiar with Nathan R. Unger's research. Hopefully I will be hearing back from her again !

Nathan R. Unger

Now you're questioning, " Who is Nathan R. Unger?" Nathan Unger does research in Clinical Pharmacology. He did a study with Erich Ritter, Robert Borrego, Jay Goodman, and Olayemi Osiyemi on Antibiotic Susceptibilities of Bacteria Isolated within the Oral Flora of the Florida Blacktip. 

What they found was that when they did the Gram Stain test that Gram-negative compromised a significantly higher portion of bacteria compared to gram-positive bacteria. The overall antibiotic resistance rate was 12% for all antibiotics tested.

Table of the Gram Stain taken during the Unger Research

Now back to my research project! I have started to put a word document together just to organize my thoughts about everything.I haven't come up with a procedure yet for when I do catch the sharks but its baby steps and I will get there. But first I will have to build the remote sampling device that Ugner used in his research. Since they cost about $10,000 to get one I thought it would be cost efficient to make one I found on a DIY website.  Clallam County in Washington State's website helped me with materials and instructions needed to make a Sampling device.

Remote Sampling Device Used in Unger's research

Listed below is my title, questions, sharks being used, location, and materials for my remote sampling device:

-Title: Bacteria Loves You and the Sharks

-Question: Are drug-resistant bacteria only common in certain species of sharks on the ponce inlet or do they vary from shark to shark?

-Sharks Im Using: Anything. Anything I catch will be sampled. The more the better!

-Location-Ponce Inlet, because so many incidents have happen here with shark bite victims, I believe this will be the best place to catch sharks.

-Materials for device: (1) extendable painting rod; 6 feet extendable to 12 feet ,(1) 2-inch Irwin Speed Clamp, (2) 8/32" x 2" bolts, (2) 8/32" locking nuts, (4) #6 washers, (2) pieces closed-cell foam, 1.5" x 10" (trim to length after installing), (2) 5" or longer nylon wire ties

I'll be keeping everyone undated on how the tool is looking. I'm going to start building it tonight! I'm excited that I am finally able to start this project!