Identifying Bacteria in Soil Samples from West Philadelphia
This project was influenced by a previous research experiment conducted at the Community College of Philadelphia. In this experiment, students:
- Took samples from local areas
- Isolated DNA material within them
- Conducted PCR reactions
- Barcoded samples with unique identifier proteins
- Used a nanopore sequencer to read the genomes of 16s (bacterial) DNA
This genomic data was processed and used to return identified genera of bacteria in the samples. Using this research, one could identify multiple genera of bacteria commonly present in West Philadelphia, which acted as inspiration for further research. Could these bacteria be used to improve life in Philadelphia? Could they be used to answer questions arising in the world?
