This week my partner and I were able to finish all of our calculations in order to make the media to feed our cells. Our calculation process was a little tricky because we had our initial numbers in BAC but we needed to convert them into ABV, the reason for the conversion is because the numbers we had were measured in blood alcohol content which is for humans but drinks are measured in alcohol by volume. Once we had those conversions we then had to use the conversion formula, C1*V1 = C2*V2, in order to find the amount of ethanol and Kinky Pink (our alcoholic beverage) we needed to mix with the 30 mL media. The percentages of each we wanted to use were 0.01%, 0.08% and 0.3%.
For our project we really wanted to test to see if it was the actual alcohol itself that causes the weight gain or if it's the additives in alcoholic beverages that cause it. We are starting our experiment soon with the mouse adipocytes but, my only fear is that the 0.01% and 0.08% won't have that big of an effect on our cells. I spoke with Dr. Florence V who conducted similar research with alcohol and she said that her team wasn't able to see much results until they used 0.4% and above. We're hoping that because our experiment is being done on a different cell line that these cells will show a change with the lower amounts, if not then we will have to increase the amount of alcohol we are using.
Below are photos of my partner and I preparing our tubes for the media and then inserting the media into our tubes that contain either ethanol or Kinky Pink. There is also a link to our calculations as well as a photo of our plan for this week, a flowgram of our set up and our updated procedure.
For our project we really wanted to test to see if it was the actual alcohol itself that causes the weight gain or if it's the additives in alcoholic beverages that cause it. We are starting our experiment soon with the mouse adipocytes but, my only fear is that the 0.01% and 0.08% won't have that big of an effect on our cells. I spoke with Dr. Florence V who conducted similar research with alcohol and she said that her team wasn't able to see much results until they used 0.4% and above. We're hoping that because our experiment is being done on a different cell line that these cells will show a change with the lower amounts, if not then we will have to increase the amount of alcohol we are using.
Below are photos of my partner and I preparing our tubes for the media and then inserting the media into our tubes that contain either ethanol or Kinky Pink. There is also a link to our calculations as well as a photo of our plan for this week, a flowgram of our set up and our updated procedure.