Endotoxins Science Fair Projects

Products

Products that can be purchased in a store are great for science fair projects. There are many aspects of these products that you can manipulate.

Definition: Classically, an endotoxin is a toxin that, unlike an "exotoxin", is not secreted in soluble form by live bacteria, but is a structural component in the bacteria which is released mainly when bacteria are lysed. Lysis refers to the breaking down of a cell.

Objectives/Goals

Goal 1-Find a filter paper that can be used for a dipstick test
Goal 2-Make a color graduating test so that if there is more endotoxin, the shade of yellow would be darker and if there is less endotoxin, then the shade of yellow would be lighter
Goal 3-The test must be quick and easy to use
Goal 4-The test must have a negative control embedded into the paper so not to show a false positive
Goal 5-The test must be able to work at different temperatures
Goal 6-The test must be able to work in the real world, i.e with ready-to-eat salad

Methods/Materials

endotoxin (dead E. coli and Salmonella)
Limulus Amebocyte Lysate (LAL)
Chromogenic Assay
Deionized water
Pyrogen-free test tubes
Serological pipettes
Micro-pipettors
Micro-pipette tips
Reagent water
5 different types of filter paper
Cambrex LAL test kit
2 different brands of Ready To Eat Salad

Results

The test (filter paper) did turn yellow in the presence of endotoxin. The color change also corresponded to the amount of endotoxin detected. When there was more endotoxin detected, the yellow color change was darker, when there was less endotoxin detected the color change was lighter.

Conclusions/Discussion

I was successful in building a prototype that can be used at home to detect endotoxin (presence of Salmonella, E.coli) . Furthermore, I did meet all of my goals. 3rd party contributor