Major
Biology
Anticipated Graduation Year
2020
Access Type
Open Access
Abstract
The urinary microbiome is one of the least studied sites in humans. In order to study and characterize its inhabitants, new techniques for specimen isolation and DNA extraction must be developed. Here, a new protocol is proposed that is designed to collect both bacteria and viruses from the same urine sample. This removes the need for dedicated concentration and amplification steps, saving time and money. It also allows for a more complete catalogue of a sample's inhabitants. DNA extraction and Viral concentration efficiency were tested using bacteriophages obtained from our lab, combined with lab strains of Streptococcus and E. coli.
Faculty Mentors & Instructors
Dr, Catherine Putonti - Department of Bioinformatics
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Testing a New Protocol for Extracting Microbial DNA from Urine Samples
The urinary microbiome is one of the least studied sites in humans. In order to study and characterize its inhabitants, new techniques for specimen isolation and DNA extraction must be developed. Here, a new protocol is proposed that is designed to collect both bacteria and viruses from the same urine sample. This removes the need for dedicated concentration and amplification steps, saving time and money. It also allows for a more complete catalogue of a sample's inhabitants. DNA extraction and Viral concentration efficiency were tested using bacteriophages obtained from our lab, combined with lab strains of Streptococcus and E. coli.