My Honours Project 05

There's nothing else to say except that I've finished my Honours project...





...





?!?

Okay, I guess I can only say that time flies?? Haha, it had being a few weeks since I last updated on this blog about my honours project and with a flash, I have finish it!! Ya, how I wish...

Actually, I have only finish the data collection of my project and in my opinion, typing the report is even a more challenging task... Hmm... hopefully I will start soon!!

My original plan is to finish collection of data from 100 samples during the vacation. However, as my professor managed to get Agri-food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) of Singapore to agree on helping me with the serotyping tests, there is a change of plan... Be it being good or bad, this brought forward the deadline I have to finish my data collection to 10 December (so that I will have enough time to go to AVA for further testing before new year).





Believe me, it's not that easy to achieve deadline as it meant that I have to go back to laboratory the very next day after my examination and also increase my sampling size for each week. Anyway, I guess I can more or less say that everything's goes well for my progress since I managed to abide to the change in schedule =)

Yet, somehow, I'm not all too happy about it... Sometimes, I just can't help but feel that the other students sharing the same laboratory are being selfish: using up supplies and materials, occupying the whole laboratory... And at other times, I feel angry at myself that I have the thoughts of relaying on someone to help me with my work. I really hope that I can be more independent!!





Le~

My Honours Project 04

OMG, my sample stink!!! They are so smelly that I almost died on Wednesday when I take them out of the incubator (after one day incubation).

To make it worse, I managed to 'pollute' the whole of my laboratory, the laboratory beside mine and eventually the whole of FST corridor when we open the door to let the smell escape...

I never know that seafood can smell so bad... And I feel equally bad for making the whole FST corridor filled with the smell...

Le~

My Honours Project 03

Our media for pathogens finally arrived!! Went to prepare the media yesterday so that me and Joce can do some sampling today. According to the protocol from my professor, I have to prepare phosphate saline buffer (PSB) with 3% NaCl for pre- enrichment and alkaline saline peptone water (APW) for enrichment of Vibrio. After a short meeting with him, he found out that he made a mistake and both pre- enrichment and enrichment should be done in APW with 3% NaCl.

Thinking that I can go back to the laboratory to add in the NaCl to the APW, I found out that I was too late as my PI had already put the solutions into the autoclave. So the whole of last night, I was worrying whether the lack of 3% NaCl will affect the enrichment process, or whether I can add in the NaCl and autoclave a second time. In the end, I choose not to add in the NaCl...

After we finish our laboratory for the day, I received a call from my professor...


Professor: YunLe?


Lele: Yes?


Professor: Have you prepared the APW?


Lele: Yup... *think: should I tell him I didn't add in the NaCl?


Professor: You prepared the APW and added to your sample already?


Lele: Yar... but I forget to add in the NaCl...


Professor: Oh, cause from the protocol of APW, the NaCl was already in the powder. So don't have to add NaCl...


Lele: So don't need to add NaCl? *Phew


Professor: You didn't add the NaCl?


Lele: Nope.


Professor: Hahaha, okay okay. Don't need to add...


Lele: Haha, okay.





---oOOo---

Wee-----!! Super lucky! I think my professor was happy cause I didn't wasted 40g of the powder. Lalala~





Le~

My Honours Project 02

Today is the official day I start my honours project after familiarizing with the method for 2 weeks. My very 1st batch of 10 samples consisted of prawns and live shellfishes. I really can't imagine how am I going to get the meat out of the shellfishes when they are alive... So I choose to put them in the chilling section of the refrigerator for the night.

This afternoon, when I try to pull out the meat, I ended up splashing the "blood" of the blood cockle on my laboratory coat. Is that my retribution T.T? Haiz, as I was having difficulties taking the meat from the shell, the PI in my laboratory suggested that I just rinse their surface with the enrichment broth...





... ...





To my utter HORROR, the shellfishes were still alive after soaking in the broth for 1 hour! In fact, they were trying very hard to climb out of the stomacher bag. When I show it to the PI...





PI: They are true survivor. Do you want to stomach (homogenise) them?


Lele: * shock!!


PI: *Laugh... See, she was shocked (referring to me =.=)





Please do not ask me what happened to the shellfishes after the experiment. Amen....





Le~

My Honours Project

The start of year four in my university life marks the start of my honours project... Since my life is going to be very much evolving around this honours project for this one whole year, I guess I should at least state what I will be doing...

Project Number: xxx11

Contamination level of Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., and Vibrio spp. in Seafood Product.

In short, it is all about microbiology in seafood... My interests in food science are mainly analytical chemistry and microbiology. Since, I have chosen to focus on the analytical aspect during my attachment, I thought I should try taking microbiology as the topic for my honours project...

Then you might ask: but why seafood? If you have known me long enough, you should have knew that I'm allergy to seafood. Sometimes, I get rashes, breathing difficulties and fever from consuming seafood. So I guess it's kind of a ... Revenge? Haha, 'You (seafood) do this this to me, and I'll do this (killing them for sampling, stomaching them, homogenising...) to you...' Hmm, I would say that THAT wasn't such a bad excuse.

I guess the REAL reasons for me to choose seafood is because most of the topics on microbiology were already taken when I choose the project and there left like 3 topics (Aw, that sounded so I- got- no- choice- but- to- choose- it); and that I thought choosing seafood as my sample will make the project more challenging.

Yup, so now I will embark on the one year journey of 'Honours Project'...





Le~