Getting Started

                I recognized a few academic colleague faces that made it this year to the program. Since another semester has started, I was, again, accepted to the STEM program of scholars. I look forward to another successful spring 2013 semester this year. I began to give my time to the requirements of the program this week. Unfortunately, I at the moment can’t perform my samples that require the classroom door handles of the DB building because I will interrupt classes in session. Figure 1 below shows the potential classroom door handle being swabbed this week.

Figure 1. The exterior door handle of the DB building 2nd floor classroom. Also, it is the same size, shape, and appearance on the interior of it.

I Hope that before Friday I can begin to start swabbing my first objects on campus, so I can start analyzing the data. During the next few weeks I want to start swabbing rails, then to vendor machine selection buttons, and elevator buttons.  Figures 2, 3, 4, and 5 below show possible targets for swabbing.

           It has been a long break for me from the internship opportunity bestowed onto me since last semester. The focus in mind is still fomites on college campuses. My past blogs didn’t include any of the research I’ve been conducting, so I have copied and paste my abstract below in bold and border around it. Furthermore, my procedure has had many revisions, and beneath the abstract are the procedure/materials.

Fomite Bacteria on High Touch Objects on a College Campus

The spread of fomite bacteria is of major concern on college campuses due, in part, to the lack of information and potential for germ distribution. High touch objects such as elevator buttons, vending machine buttons, stair rails, door handles, smartphones, keyboards, classroom tables, and other objects, are potential areas of germ spread. In this study, bacteria and other microbes were quantified from these high interaction objects. Bacteria were obtained by swabbing and culturing swabs on TSA media. Colony forming units were quantified from the TSA plates for each surface sampled. It is expected that locations with the highest amount of microbes will be smartphones and vending machines. In contrast, external door handles are expected to have fewer bacterium.

Method/Materials

1.      Prepared 20 sterilized test tubes (16x100).

2.      Identified 20 objects on campus (men bathroom toilet handles, vending machine buttons, structure door handles) being swab for the experiment.

Wet swab run

1.      Dipped swab in Peptone, and swab each surface with 0.1% Peptone.

2.      Swab objects 20cm across in a vertical or horizontal line. (Depending on surface area)

a.      Slight rotation of swab on contact with surface.

b.      External handles are shorter area surface.

3.      Swab tip was broken off in test tube.

4.      Label 20 TSA plate accordingly to location and object/surface being targeted.

5.      Inoculated swab samples to TSA plates directly for culturing bacteria. Note: Practice aseptic techniques.

3.      Incubate all 20 TSA plates for 24 hours at 37°C in room 104. Note: correctly positioned for storage.

4.      Quantified colony forming units by counting.