11/20/13

This week, I got to officially start on my very own experiment!!!

 As mentioned in my previous post, my experiment revolves around potassium. My mentor and I decided to incorporate this very metal via the agar plates. Rather than the usual set of ingredients used to create the standard agar plate, I added a particular amount of potassium bicarbonate to the mix in addition to the regular components. As shown in the picture to the left, I prepared 3 separate mixtures--one of which is the control medium.

(Here is a bonus picture! :D) This is me in the compete lab gear head to toe. (except my sterilized clogs aren't shown here). In this image, I am preparing plates (moving the spore onto the agar plates) as mentioned in the post below.

11/13/13

        Due to the fact that now I have basically went through the general process of growing the mushroom product they produce at Ecovative, my mentor told me that we would be moving on to a new project. This time, she gave me full rein. My next assignment/opportunity was to create my own experiment. She asked me what I would like to experiment on/about and that once I had a set topic, I would get to carry out the experiment, like how an actual scientist would him/herself. First, I started with a word bank of vague and broad ideas that I was interested in and that which would be feasible for me to carry through. After reading several papers that she printed out for me and researching on the web, I decided to base my very first project on the workings/effect of potassium on the growth of mushrooms and also on the inhibition of molds/bacteria of the growing strains. This topic, my mentor and I agreed, would give me various pathways to take even after performing the experiment. For instance, not only would I be able to do the actual experiment, but also I would be able to get to use the Dinoxcope program (program that allows one to use the microscope via the computer screen) to analyze and save my results later-on.

      Aside from deciding my project, just to practice and better my plating skills, my mentor left me all by-myself to 1) wipe down the hood, 2) get the materials 3) perform plating plates 4) clean the hood. In short, she basically left me to do my own things while she took care of her other projects. I felt so accomplished, content, and most importantly: independent by the end of my internship. I can't wait for the coming weeks when I get to actually start my project and see how it takes shape!

11/06/13

In addition to the things that I did last week, my mentor and I also set up agar plates around 4 different places in the lab to see what kinds of molds are in the atmosphere. I placed one agar plate near the sink, one near the cookers (the pressure cookers), one near the incubation rack, and one near the compressor shelf. Coming in today, I was really curious as to see the different kinds of molds that should have formed over the past few days while I was gone. To my great dismay, not that many molds or bacteria formed on the plates--this is a good thing in the company's stance as that means their lab for the most part is a sterile environment--which is what they aim to attain. However, the agar plate next to the pressure cookers showed three groupings of mold that had begun to take form. In addition, the agar plate that was placed near the sink exhibited a blob of bacteria. My mentor taught me how to tell the difference between molds and bacteria. Contaminants that look watery and slimy are most likely to be the latter group (bateria) while dry and fuzzy substances the former (molds). After seeing these, I finally understood the reason why my mentor stressed ever-so-much the concept of sterilizing every single tool and person before conducting experiments. Even in this seemingly-pristine environment, there are still contaminants in the air that can harm the products.

This is bacteria

These are 3 molds

 As well as that, today I was able to take home my first test-product-mushroom-packaging product!! After I took the picture of the teddy bears posted in my previous blog post, my mentor and I put them in the dryer to absorb all the moisture and thereby prevent the mycelia from further growing and fruiting mushrooms. Had these objects simply been left out in the humid atmosphere, they would turn into something like the picture below.

<-- The protruding object circled in yellow is the beginning of a mushroom. Left over time, this would eventually grow into the mushroom we know and imagine today.

I got to take these three products back with me!!

 Upon showing my first test products to my friends, they all believed me when I lied and told them it was styrofoam. When I told them it was actually made of compost materials and mushroom mycelium, they were very surprised. :) 

10/30/13: MUSHROOM TEDDY BEARS :)

Last Wednesday, I continued with the next step in the process of making my very first mushroom test-product at Evocative. In the previous post, I shared my experience in putting together a bag of growing medium (compost) for the mushrooms to grow on. After these bags show signs of inoculation (also as stated in the prior post), one would open them up and throughly mix them together--and this is exactly what I did. 

After my mentor and I decided that the two bags we had left to inoculate were sufficiently ready, she informed me that my next procedure would be to pour the compost, now covered with newly-grown fungi, onto a flat surface and to completely mix it so that it would give off a homogenous appearance rather than only the surface portion of the bag containing the white mycelia. (this is shown in the picture to the left)

After accomplishing this task, I got to choose the type of mold to pack this compost in--I went with the teddy-bear shaped mold. As mentioned many times before, the mycelia (white things that appear during inoculation) acts as a glue for the compost materials. Thus, when the mycelia-infused medium is tightly inserted into a plastic mold, over a time period of three to five days the agricultural waste transforms into a durable material. Depending on the type of strain of mycelium used in the prior step (the step that I explained in my previous post), Ecovative is able to make a variety of different kinds of the final product. For example, one type of strain would produce a water absorbent product while another would produce a dielectric final packaging product. In this way, the company is able to meet the requests of many different types of companies and each of their products (ie: computers, wines, etc).

Before

After 3~5 days

10/23/13

    Other than check up on my agar plates last week, I also had the chance to put together a bag of growing medium (compost) for the mushrooms to grow on. This is the very first step Ecovative scientists perform when creating their mushroom product. What one does to create this medium is first insert into a sterilized bag a sufficient amount of straw, corn cobs, etc... and on top of that add pure grain spawn on top. Next, one throughly mixes the two ingredients together to fully inoculate the grain. Then the bag is tightly sealed and left to grow.

                  Unlike flowering plants, all mushrooms grow from tiny spores rather than seeds. (Plants that grow from spores are called fungi). Due to the fact that mushrooms have no chlorophyll to obtain nutrients by they must get their nutrients from organic matter in their environment--this is most often called compost, a combination of various materials like corn cobs and straw. This goes back to the point I made in my very first post concerning the eco-friendly production at Ecovative. This company is planet-friendly even in the sense that the ingredients needed to create their products are what many consider "waste." Ecovative uses the surplus of leftover corn cobs, straw, seed hulls, etc... that are left over after harvest season to create their compost for the mushrooms to grow on. A full-grown mushroom will produce many many spores (ie: 16 billion) and they must then be collected in a sterile environment, like the lab Ecovative scientists work in.

 Thus, coming in this past Wednesday, I found the two bags of compost I put together fully cultured. When before the bags looked like a batch of straw compressed together, now it gave off a white appearance, indicating that the fungi had grown as predicted. As shown in the picture to the left, the white mycelia colonized the entire compost--this visible growth of the fungi can be used as an indicator of its life cycle stage and health.

Each week, I advance through the steps Ecovative scientists perform routinely to create their various products and each week I can't wait to see what the next procedure is! I am also really excited to see how my very own Styrofoam-like mushroom packaging product will turn out!

10/16/13: Another day at the Mushroom Factory

         Last Wednesday I finally got to see the results of the agar plate onto which I had transferred the Mycelial Culture. In my previous post, I addressed some concerns in which I feared I may have contaminated a majority of the very plates. However, to both my mentor and my delight, we found that most grew without a mold in sight--only about one or two plates showed traces of bacteria.

   Expanding on last weeks project, the agar media that was used to grow the mycelium is not a fertile ground for growing mushrooms--the fruiting bodies of the fungi that produce spores. However, the mycelium culture grows quite nicely on it and thus the mycelium that grows in petri dishes (like the ones below) can be used only to inoculate a substrate where it can further develop.

As you can see in this picture (to the left), the white mycelium, resulting from the spore placed last week on the fresh agar plate, is now visible. This is perfectly normal and tells us that everything went according to plan. The first signs of mycelial growth gives off a white fuzzy looking appearance --> called rhizomorphic growth. It is a sign that the mycelium will most likely fruit well. Most of the plates were completely colonized as shown by its completely white semblance. As mentioned before, any other abnormal substance, ie: mold, is a clear sign of contamination. (A contaminated plate will never produce mushrooms)

This picture to the left is just the underside view of one plate held to the light. You can see the spore placed that I placed the week before with a sterilized scalpel in the center. The culture grows in a ring-like shape and this is clearly shown in the very picture. Had I been here more often than just once a week, the normal procedure would be to note the growth of the mycelium by measuring the diameter of the ring formed.

Each week here simply gets more exciting by the week and I can not wait to see what else is in store for me to put my hands on throughout the year!

10/09/13: DAY 1

Last Wednesday, as soon as I arrived to Evocative, my mentor put me straight to work. We headed immediately to the lab to make agar plates that the mushrooms grow on. Before entering, I had to completely sterilize myself. To do this, I had to exchange my ugg boots for sanitized crocs, wear a lab coat, put on top of my lab coat clear sleeve covering for each arm, wear gloves, put on a hair net, and to top it all off, I had to wear a face mask. All this to make sure no bacterium contaminates the products. Even before I entered the lab I was already in awe.

The big thing that I learned on last Wednesday was about the very topic of contamination and how to avoid it. Even when working in the laminar flow hood transferring mycelial culture on the cooled agar plates my mentor constantly called me out for waving my arm—which was protected by a lab coat and a protective sleeve over it and misted with an alcoholic solution—over the plate that contained the mycelial culture. She told me that each time I would either have to open and then close right away the petri dish when transferring the culture to a fresh plate or find my own way that does not involve waving back and forth my arm over the colonized plate. Courtney informed that each time she makes plates, she makes at least 20 so that she knows the results she obtains are correct and not because of some particular mutation. On that day, I made about 24 plates and for more than half I was called out for. Tomorrow, I will get to see the results of the culture I transferred and I expect very few to have turned out normally. Most I predict will have soiled and formed a mold-like substance on them. By the end of my stay there, I found myself cut off as my ride had arrived. There were simply an infinite number of things for me to do that my mentor had instructed me to simply cut her off when it is time for me to leave. I can not wait to get back to Ecovative and immerse myself amongst the busy scientists, engineers, designers, and chemists that are too busy to even realize that they’ve missed lunch tomorrow!