lpotter's blog

Biosafety level 4 labs have absolutely insane filtration systems. Any air coming into the facility is filtered. Any air leaving the facility is filtered a minimum of two times to ensure no pathogen is still in the air that is leaving. If a pathogen is still in the air when it exits the facility that could prove catastrophic for the surrounding area and due to the nature of the pathogens would prove to be potentially deadly for regions well beyond the point of release. The filters that air used to filter any air flow in and out of the facilities are high efficiency particle air filters. These filters are annually updated to ensure that they are still performing the necessary task of filtering out all pathogens in the air. Daily the filter status must be checked to ensure operations may continue within the facility. If any filtration systems are compromised then the laboratory must immediately halt all activity. An additional measure to ensure no pathogens escape via the exhaust of the facility is that the facility is kept in negative pressure. This means that air flow is encourage to stay within the lab and not outside of it.

Biosafety level 4 labs are very rare. They are rare because the pathogens that the laboratories work on are very serious and pose a huge threat to public health. There are only 13 of these facilities in the united states that are even proposed. Only 8 of the facilities are even approved to work with these pathogens. Very few of them are in cities just because they could be so potentially dangerous. One of the biosafety 4 labs actually recently got approved in boston. The lab had been under construction and ready to be used since 2008. The lab got approved to be functional only in 2017, that shows how hard it is to get approved to have one of these labs. A decent amount of these labs also exist in europe. These labs will always be beyond heavily regulated as I believe pathogens as deadly as the ones that these lab work with will prove the biggest threat to human survival. I also think that this is why many countries don’t, or at least say they don’t, work on bioweapons. Bioweapons could so easily affect the person or organisation that releases it. If a pathogen is released in any major city in any region of the world it will be in another country within a day.

Laboratories are classified based upon biosafety levels that range from biosafety 1 to biosafety 4. Biosafety level 4 is considered the most dangerous of the classifications. This classification is so dangerous because the pathogens studied in these labs are easily transmitted, have a high mortality rate, and have no known cure. An example of a pathogen studied in a biosafety level 4 laboratory would be the Ebola virus. While the Ebola virus is only spread through direct contact with the infected hosts fluids it can pose a huge threat if it is released. There are many safety precautions that are associated with a biosafety level 4 laboratory. One precaution is that everyone entering the lab must decontaminate themselves, this is also true for exiting the facility. When in the lab all personnel must wear a positive pressure suit, this ensures that even if the suit is cut or damage no airflow will be allowed into the suit. Any air entering the facility is filtered and any air leaving is double filtered. Biosafety level 4 laboratories must remain secure at all times or they could pose an incredible threat to the general public.    

There are many different levels of biosafety in laboratories. They range from 1 to 4. 4 being the most extreme level. Biosafety level 4 is used for studying pathogens that have an unknown cure, high transmission rate, with high pathogenicity. For example something like the Ebola virus would be biosafety level 4 just because Ebola can so easily kill the host that it infects. While Ebola is only spread through direct contact with the infected hosts fluids it can pose a huge threat if a pathogen at this level escapes into the general public. There are many safety precautions that are associated with a laboratory of this level. Everyone must decontaminate before coming into the lab and especially when leaving it. When leaving you must shower in the suit you wore in the lab take that off and decontaminate it then shower again. The suits that you wear are filled with positive pressure. Positive pressure means that if the suit you are wearing ever rips then the oxygen in the suit will flow out and not allow air in. Positive pressure helps keeps the pathogens out of your suit at all times, it is essential that this is a feature in the suits so that no one in the laboratory gets infected with a pathogen that they are working on.  

This is not directly science related but is related to work that I had to do for my biochemistry class. We had to reflect on the exam that we just took. See if there were any questions we missed due to carelessness or just general misunderstanding. Another question was if we had any effective study methods for the exam. I’m not sure if anyone will read this but if they do it might be a helpful way to study for a test that might be considered harder. The teach provides us with a practice exam that is relatively comprehensive. I went over the practice exam multiple times, not to memorize answers but just to keep doing the process of solving the problems. Every question that was asked on the practice exam I went back through the lectures and took notes on them. I also watched the lecture videos to coordinating sections. I did this before I even tried to answer the question so that I would have all the information right there for me before I even answered it. I then took notes on the notes that I took. I did it all out by hand because this really helps me memorize and better understand my notes. When I write something down by hand I can better visualize it when I am sitting down for the exam.

Quorum sensing is a really tricky topic to understand. It is basically how bacteria talk with one another. One bacteria sends out a chemical signal and the bacteria that it is sent to has a receptor, if it can receive the signal it reacts accordingly and if it can’t than the signal will never be received. Signals can tell bacteria to do a whole bunch of different things, express a different color pigment, move to a new area where there are different nutrients, etc. The way that we are testing for this in lab is by plating a mutant bacteria that no longer can produce it’s own signal. However, it can receive signals and the way that we could tell if it receives a signal from other bacteria on the plate is by seeing what color the mutant colony turns. We are looking for the mutant colony to turn purple. We are sending the mutant many different signals. The signals are coming from 4 different bacterial colonies and all the signals are different sizes. If the mutant colony turns purple close to where the signals were provided that means that it can receive that kind of signal from that kind of bacteria.  

Another idea that my group had for the proposal was involving the decomposition of fruit. There were a few topics within this umbrella topic that really interested me and I want to hopefully have the rest of the class look at it. One idea was to test organic versus non-organic and see if the decomposition rates between the two were different. I work at whole foods so this would be particularly interesting to look at and see if paying the extra money for organic will actually get you a product that lasts longer. I kind of feel like organic products will actually have a shorter shelf life just because they aren’t allowed to have any additives or herbicides applied to them. Another thing we wanted to look at was if the origin of the fruit mattered to shelf life. Does my avocado last longer if it is from Mexico or California? I think that this answer might be found within the composition of soil, if that even has any affect on shelf life at all. And even if the soil is different will the fruit that is produced by the plant in that soil be so drastically different that it will decompose faster than another fruit of the same variety. Another thing that we wanted to test was if the size of the fruit had any affect on how fast or slow it decomposed. In my opinion this project has many easy divided sub projects that would be easily testable by the class.

For our project proposal my group had two different ideas. The first idea that we had was to monitor the behavior of ducks and geese on the campus pond. We would monitor many different things in order to create nine separate research projects that every group could complete. One thing that we would test is the correlation between the weather and how many geese or ducks would be on the pond. Another thing that we would try and measure is how many ducks and geese are on the pond at a specific time of the day. To do this a group would need to take measurements at multiple time periods throughout the day. Another thing we would try and measure is how the ducks and geese reacted when people were nearby. Did they leave the land to go in the pond during class transitions? Did they leave the pond all together? Were they inclined to come up to the people? Questions along those lines. Another key aspects of this question that we would try and test is the ratio between ducks and geese on the pond at any given moment and if anything changes to affect the ratio of them. To better understand this last aspect we must first find any correlations within the previously mentioned questions.

Vaccines are only as effective as their delivery system. Many vaccines employ the use of adjuvants or additives that help to deliver the antigen to the host. What the adjuvants are supposed to do is activate an immune response so that the host can fully recognize the antigen and properly recognize to create a lasting immunity. You can think of adjuvants as the coating of a multilayer pill. Many pills have a layer that dissolves and releases compounds that will create and ideal setting in which your body can take in the actual active drug that the pill contains. The drug itself is pretty much never directly used just because without other compounds interacting with it it will never reach the destination where it is supposed to absorbed by the body or it will never actually be absorbed at all. Adjuvants are used in vaccines today primarily because of the way that vaccines are produced. Vaccines used to be made using killed or weakened whole cells, now they are made with parts of the antigen that produce strong immune responses. These vaccines are usually much safer and are generally produced more efficiently. However because it is only parts of the antigen they must be presented to the immune system in a different way. Most modern vaccines contain 25% or less of the active ingredient, parts of the antigen, and the rest is adjuvants to help present the antigen to the immune system. If you are curious about what adjuvants are in the vaccines you are receiving you can visit the the CDC website for a full list of ingredients as this information must legally be disclosed.

Vaccines are only as effective as their delivery system. Many vaccines employ the use of adjuvants or additives that help to present the antigen (pathogen that triggers an immune response) to the host’s immune system. Adjuvants are used in vaccines today primarily because of the way that vaccines are produced. In the past vaccines were made by using killed or weakened whole cells, now they are made with parts of the antigen that produce strong immune responses. The part of the antigens that are used in vaccines are most commonly protein components of the pathogen. These vaccines in most cases are safer and are produced more efficiently. Because only parts of the antigen are being used the parts must be presented to the immune system in a different way. This is why adjuvants are used, to help present just part of an antigen to the host’s immune system. Most modern vaccines contain 25% or less of the active ingredient, parts of the antigen, and the rest is adjuvants to help present the antigen to the immune system. If you are curious about what adjuvants are in the vaccines you are receiving you can visit the the CDC website for a full list of ingredients as this information must legally be disclosed.

https://www.niaid.nih.gov/research/what-vaccine-adjuvant