Indiana Biolab Bacteriophage Index

Bacteriophages are viruses which attack bacteria. This is the index to dozens of safe, interesting experiments with bacteriophages which you can do at home. These experiments will open your eyes to many fields of biochemistry, biology, biophysics, genetics, molecular biology, and virology which would be difficult to study otherwise. Bacteriophage experiments are notable for their safety.

For fast browsing of this bacteriophage website, Bookmark this page, then use your Back Button to return to this index as you finish looking at any page of this site.

Begin Your Bacteriophage Project Here, Today!

P000 - Introduction to Bacteriophages - All first time visitors should begin with this page.

• P001 - Letter to the Beginning Student - Please read before trying these experiments.
• P002 - Letter to Parents - discusses the safety risks of bacteriphage projects.
• P003 - What are bacteriophages?
• P004 -
• B005 - BacteriaStudyList - Please join (free) and send your bacteriophage questions.
• B006 - Believe it or Not. Surprising, but true facts about bacteriophages.

P020- Introduction to your own Home Bacteriophage Lab: introductory experiments, media, tools, and methods for beginners using items found at home--few or no purchases required.

• P021 - basic supplies and equipment E-broth prob OK reuse plastic plates.
• Preparing media: plates, top agar, dilution fluid.
• Paper strip streak test for viable phages on a bacterial lawn. STARTED
• B022 - Make E-Broth from ground beef on the kitchen stove - a meat broth medium.
• B023 - Dispense your media: stabs, slants, plates, deeps: aerobic and anaerobic media
• B024 - Sterilize and store your media: use pressure cooker or steamer; store dust-free
• B025 - Make a loop and streak gelatin or agar plates to isolate colonies
• B026 - Start your own pure cultures collection. A good way to begin learning the genera.
• B027 - Reuse plastic plates and trays. Experiments using bacterial lawns
• B028 - Milk media. Many bacteria grow better in milk than in meat broth.
• B029 - Make media from potato, carrot, tomato, rice, hay, grass: slices, plugs, and liquid
• B030 - Stock Cultures Media - as used at Indiana Biolab <== READ THIS PAGE
• B031 - Chemolithotropic media: rocks and sulfur; mud jars.
• B0?? - Simple diagnostic media which can be made at home.
• B0?? - More about anaerobic bacteria: media and methods for culturing them
• B027?? - Reuse plastic plates and trays. Experiments using bacterial lawns
• B0?? - Introduction to enrichment and selective media for specific genera of bacteria
• B038 - How to count bacteria, plus sub pages on statistics, equipment, simple to complex
• reports by students doing microbiology expriments at home; send yours today.
• B039 - Summary of tools, equipment, and media for your Home Micro Lab. Incomplete

B040 - Index page. Standard Methods used in Microbiology: This chapter shows you how to perform the techniques used in colleges, hospitals, and professional laboratories. A junior high school student many not have access to this equipment, but these pages help him design or select substitutes so that he is able to complete many additional experiments.

• B041 - What are agar, tryptone, yeast extract, and the other ingredients used in media?
• B0?? - Preparing professional media from tryptone, yeast extract, agar grades, origin of
• B0?? - Formula for professional media
• B0?? - Formula for diagnostic media
• B0?? - Formulae for bacteriological stains
• B0?? - Streaking plates to isolate bacteria and obtain pure cultures
• B0?? - Making slide mounts and using microscope
• B0?? - Building and maintaining a collection of bacteria generally considered safe.
• B0?? - ?building equipment for advanced work, laminar flow hoods, safety cabinets.
• B0?? - working with strict anaerobic such as rumen bacteria and methane producers

B060 - Experiments: Effect of environmental factors on the growth of bacteria. Performing these experiments will help you understand bacteria and how to protect your food from spoilage and poisoning by bacteria . Salt, sugar, pH, oxygen level, heat, and other agents are all used to protect and preserve foods. In these experiments you will aloso learn how different genera and species of bacteria differ in their response to environmental conditions.

• B061 - Oxygen requirements of bacteria - INCOMPLETE
• B062 - Optimum temperature for some common bacteria: 4C, room temp, 37C, 55C - INC
• B063 - Osmotic pressure (salt) of medium and bacteia - INCOMPLETE
• B06? - pH effect on bacterial growth
• B064 - Nutritional requirements of bacteria
• B065 - Carbohydrates used by bacteria - diagnostic assays
• B0?? - Carbon sources used by bacteria
• B0?? - Nitrogen sources used by bacteria
• B000 - Disinfectants action on bacteria
• B000 - Killing of bacteria by UV, heat, and agents is a logarithmic function
• B000 - chemo- and organo- tropic nutrition
• B000 - Bacteriophages (viruses that attack bacteria)
• B000 - Bacteriocins that kill bacteria

B090 - The classification of Bacteria: main groups, families, genera, archeobacteria

• B095 - Short list of distinctive Genera of bacteria; good student should know these INCOMPLETE

B100 - Food Bacteriology: Experiments with the bacteria you eat every day INCOMPLETE

• B10? - Making foods by selective fermentations of cabbage, cucumbers, peanut, sorghum, tea fungus, drinks, soybean, breads, cover most primitive fermented foods. `
• B10? - Improvement of primitive fermented foods by pure culture methods
• B120 - NEW - index to milk fermentations, LAB, olives, etc
• isolation of pure cultures of bacteria from human foods by students at home.
• B121 - Isolating and using pure cultures of bacteria in production of fermented foods.
• B122 - Isolation of Brevibacterium linens from Limburger Cheese at home by a beginner.

B200 - Isolation and study of bacteria from nature with descriptions of family, genus, species

• B203 - Isolation and characteristics of Vibrio phosphoreum, glows brightly.
• Eventually dozens of bacteria will be covered in detail in this section.

Bottles can serve as culture tubes, or your teacher may loan you culture tubes and supplies. If not try a hospital, they throw away lots of items you can use and if autoclaved they are perfectly safe. Before you trouble a hospital for gifts, do a few week's work at home and prove that you are really interested and planning to work hard. Can lids, or flat bottles can serve as petri plates. Most students only have access to plastic petri plates, but is sometimes possible to reuse them.

You may send private e-messages to Dr. Eddleman and he will reply, usually within 24 hours.

http://www.phage.org/ - injects phage DNA I can link to th gif.