Three St. Petersburg College students earned top honors at the annual Florida Branch of the American Society for Microbiology conference held in Cocoa Beach. The students belong to the Microbiology Research Student Association at the Clearwater Campus and competed against students from around the state.

Joseph Perez was awarded second place in the undergraduate poster category. Theresa Ketcham ranked fifth in the same category.

Perez presented on “Flesh Eating Touch Tank?!? Characterizing a pathogenic bacteria isolated from a touch tank.” Ketcham’s poster was entitled “Surf’s up…but is it safe? Examining the effects of rainfall on beach pollution and the potential health risks to Florida Gulf coast surfers.”

Charles Tagoe was selected to give an oral presentation on his research project entitled: “Evaluating Triclosan Resistance and the Presence of Virulence Factors in Enterococcus spp. Isolated From Sewage and Environmental Samples.” Despite only being a part of the research club for a few months, he gave a well-informed and entertaining presentation. He ranked fifth among both undergraduate and graduate oral presenters.

More than 100 students and professors attended the event and heard informative presentations on topics ranging from microbes associated with lettuce grown on the space station to the presence of disease-causing bacteria on fish.

SPC students competed against undergraduates from Florida Atlantic University, Florida International University, Florida Institute of Technology, Nova Southeastern University, Saint Leo University, University of Miami, University of South Florida, and University of Florida for best poster presentation. During the poster presentations, students interacted with faculty, graduate students and other undergraduates explaining their research goals, methodologies and outcomes.

Shannon Ulrich, professor of Natural Sciences at the Clearwater Campus, sponsored her students on the October trip, funded by the Clearwater SGA. The St. Petersburg College Foundation helped fund some of the research projects.

Other students who attended were Erin Hoyle, Roberta Spathari, Chelsea Knapp and Katherine Waters. Hoyle and Spathari presented a poster on A Potential New Source of Biosynthesized Sun Protection, while Katherine Waters presented a poster on Identification of Gram Positive Bacteria on Door Handles at a Local Hospital.

While there, the group bumped into Dr. Ray Menard, professor of Natural Sciences at the St. Petersburg/Gibbs Campus, and his two students Kelli Panzera and James Culver.

Channeling artist Vincent Van Gogh, Lauren LeLockwood (a SPC biology student) tries to recreate artwork using pigment bacteria.  The bacteria comes from a collection of pigmented microbes.  This collection was established by Dr. Shannon Ulrich’s research students.  Students collected various environmental samples including water and soil samples.  The samples were plated on a variety of microbiological media and any microbes exhibiting pigmentation were isolated.  The students also extracted DNA from the microbes, amplified the 16S rRNA gene of the bacteria and sequenced it.  Students are able to compare the sequence of the 16S rRNA gene to a database to determine the identity of the bacteria.  The bacteria in the above petri dish has been identified as Micrococcus luteus (yellow), Erwinia spp. (orange), Chromobacterium violaceum (purple), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (greenish), and Serratia marcescens (red).  This work was funded by a SPC Foundation Innovation Grant.

This project gives students an opportunity to explore advanced microbiological techniques as well as create works of art to proudly display.  This is a great way to show students that science doesn’t have to be ‘stiff and boring’; scientists can be creative and artistic too!

Lauren plans to submit her artwork to the American Society for Microbiology “Art Agar” competition for possible publication.

Here’s another ‘piece’ of her artwork also created using bacteria:

The first ever Biology I Honors course was offered this past Spring semester.  As part of the combined lecture and laboratory course, the students were required to synthesize, research and complete an individual term project.  The project culminated with a poster presentation.   Faculty and other students were invited to come and observe the work of the honors students.  Projects included testing bacterial levels at Clearwater and Gandy Beach, testing bathroom door handles for E. coli using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), assessing the antimicrobial effects of tea tree oil and honey on gram positive bacteria, testing ‘organically-labeled’ food products for GMOs and assessing the effects of microwave radiation on seed germination.

WEDU Quest is a monthly series on science, technology and education. It’s hosted by SPC’s microbiology professor, Dr. Shannon Ulrich (formerly Dr. Shannon McQuaig).

This month the WEDU Quest crew came to the Clearwater campus to film the host segment in the microbiology lab.  For more information on the show visit: WEDU Quest.