Tacho
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Amateur biotechnology
Does anybody know a good source of information (online) on biotechnology?
Basic information, experiments with yeasts, molds etc?
I'm becoming very interested in the subject and could not find anything interesting using google.
It seems that there is not many people interested in this as a hobby.
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chemoleo
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Well Biotechnology is probably not the right term.
Biotech would be very very hard to do at home, as it would falter at preliminary things such as cloning etc. (for the lack of restriction enzymes etc)
Anyway, I actually was going to make some threads on simple biochemistry experiments, or even experiments with fruit flys - which are easy to get hold
of of course.
So just be patient ... and you'll get some DIY stuff 
PS I didnt find much on 'hobby biochemistry' either, at least on the web. Best is to get some OLD biochem/mol. biol. book, and do some
reading. The old methods were actually quite simple and don't require a huge amount of chemicals.
Never Stop to Begin, and Never Begin to Stop...
Tolerance is good. But not with the intolerant! (Wilhelm Busch)
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Tacho
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Thank you chemoleo,
Biotech may not be the proper term. What I mean is the use of fungi, algi, bacteria, yeast etc. to do chemical work.
Ethanol making is a very popular hobby, but many other goodies can be made: lactic and acetic acids, enzimes, pesticides... I even read about
poliester! Do they make alkaloids?
I was fascinated by Organikum post about using alginate to make fixed yeast beads. I always wondered if alginate would be as good support for a
culture as agar-agar, since they both come from algi (alginic acid salts?). Alginate is so much more available than agar-agar, you can get it at any
dentist’s supply. If you mix it with some commercial meat extract would it be a nice culture media for fungi?
Correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t there thousands of strains of bugs that were not tested for their chemical behavior? In our backyards? I see a
good field for amateurs.
But the practical details...
How do I know a bug is dead? Poke it with a stick?
Would this forum be a good place to discuss this? Is anybody else interested?
[Edited on 5-2-2004 by Tacho]
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Saerynide
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Bugs?? Strains?? Strains of bugs?
Do you mean species? Or is "bug" a slang for bacteria?  But you cant
poke bacteria with a stick.
Edit: Live insects dont usually flip over and stay that way for 2 weeks 
[Edited on 5-2-2004 by Saerynide]
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Polverone
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I would be interested in a continuing discussion of this topic. It's been on my "to-investigate" list for a long time.
PGP Key and corresponding e-mail address
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Organikum
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biotech - yeast - etc
The best starting point for an amateur scientist is yeast - because of nontoxicity, availability and the endless possibilities these creatures have -
only in parts known up to now.
As soon I find out how to extract the damned bookmarks on this topic from the OPERA browser I will post them here - enough to do for all interested
ones I guess...
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Organikum
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tip
As soon one wants to leave the "whole cell" territory I would advise to have a look into "membrane technologie" first.
No enzyme separation without membranes.
But here I have strong hopes into chemoleo showing us the way....
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Organikum
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Massa Buana Polverone!
FYI.
Attachment: bakersyeast.djvu (572kB)
This file has been downloaded 999 times
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Organikum
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Not the whip! No, pleaze not the....outch
FYI
Attachment: biohydrogenation_yeast.djvu (50kB)
This file has been downloaded 973 times
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Tacho
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Thank you Organikum,
I also think yeast is the way to go for begginers. I`ve made already two inoculated mediums: 50/50 honey/water and 50/50 corn syrup/water. Used
baker`s yeast. Just to see it happening.
If nothing else, I`ll learn to make booze.
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Organikum
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tacho
working with bakers yeast is a very good start. It is often forgotten that yeast is alive and brewing beer is an art.
One has to have gained some experience with these animals and their respiratory cycles - this is the key to success in whole-cell based biotech
processes.
Add some MgSO4 to the broth and stirr it for aeration from time to time
And monitor and note the ph! Thats most interesting and ph control is essential in further experiments. So try to keep the ph on a constant level by
adding some H3PO4 or an organic acid (diluted of course) - thats not so easy as it sounds and is the main reason for non-working processes. By the ph
you also monitor the respiratory cycles I spoke of before.
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chemoleo
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Ok - this thread is somehow very broad range, so maybe it'd be better to start new threads on the respective topics 
Anyway, Organikum, since you mention membrane technology - this is used in large scale isolation of all sorts of biological compounds (you mention
enzymes/proteins for starters). Very difficult to do this yourself though. Such membranes are not easy to make, and difficult to get hold of. Dialysis
membranes are probably the easiest to come by, but I wouldnt know where to get them OTC. I was always thinking of cellophane, which seems permeable
with a certain molecular weight cut off. But, there are other ways to purify proteins, ways which are simpler and can be done at home. I will, given
the time, make a thread on protein purifcation - in fact this the major area of my expertise
Tacho - you mention working with all sorts of moulds/bacteria found in the soil, water etc. But as Organikum said, for starters it's probably
easiest to work with bakers yeast (saccharomyces cerevisiae). Else, you could work with the lactobacillus strains found in yoghurts, or on Escherichia
Coli found in your intestine and isolatable from your excrements.
The problem with any other species is to isolate it, and find the conditions at which it grows. THe reason why so many single-cell organisms exist and
yet have not been characterised is because it is not known how to culture them, in isolation. For instance, there are a lot of bacteria that cannot
exist on their own, they live because they have a symbiotic (metabolic ) relationship with other bacteria. Look at, for instance, the bacteria in your
mouth, particularly on teeth and holes thereof. There are multiple layers of bacteria, all different species, and together they form a highly
effective multilayer bacterial system that degrades your teeth, and is hard to study in isolation.
As to the study of fungi - I think that is feasible to some extent. But you don't need things like alginate, moist crumbled bread, or even moist
toilet paper will do. Play with it (there are plenty of variations as to what you could use for growth medium, plus plenty of conditions (temperature,
pH, (an)aerobic etc)), and see what grows on it. Then take one of the offspring and culture it in isolation, under sterile conditions. I am sure you
could isolate tens of species that way. Same goes for fungus/bacteria in compost. There are books available that look at fungi in detail, and you
should be able to identify some of them with a simple microscope (there are cheap ones available, and they are certainly sufficient for fungi... but
most like not for bacteria as they are considerably smaller)
Then.. how would you look at the 'chemical behaviour' of those fungi/bacteria? What property are you looking for? It has to be something
measurable. You could do something simple like giving those bugs only sunflower oil to eat (triglycerides) - and hope for fatty acid production etc.
Or give them only glycerin/H2O. I will look into this, as to how to tweak them to make lots of lactic acid, or pyruvic acid, or esters etc.
Oh, here is a cool one to try for yourself: I once isolated some very mysterious fungus that was able to grow in phosphate buffered saline (i.e. 50 mM
NaPi pH7 and 100 mM NaCl). A liter was kept in a bottle, with hardly any air in it, for a few months, at which point a white mycelium grew at the
bottom of the bottle! I thought this is fascinating as there is SOO little present for the fungus to grow on! I.e. probably a bit of CO2 from the air,
hardly any oxygen... and yet growth! If you manage to culture that, that would be fantastic! Study of an organism taht grows at sub-minimal
conditions!
[Edited on 7-2-2004 by chemoleo]
Never Stop to Begin, and Never Begin to Stop...
Tolerance is good. But not with the intolerant! (Wilhelm Busch)
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Hulk
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Hi Tacho and group,
I am just starting out as well in biotech. I found 2 books that deal with some experimentation for beginners. I have not started yet but as soon as my
lab is put together I am going to do these experiments.
The books are:
1) Biotechnology Projects for Young Scientists (Newer book can still be found)
(1998)
2) Experimental Biology: Roads to Research by William Berman(1968)
These books have experiments with yeasts and cancer, etc.
Another book I have ordered and waiting for is Biology Projects for Young Scientists.
I am not a young scientist but it still sounds good.
Hulk
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chemoleo
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Hulk, if you were to scan those books and put them online, I am sure FTP access could be arranged within minutes 
Never Stop to Begin, and Never Begin to Stop...
Tolerance is good. But not with the intolerant! (Wilhelm Busch)
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JohnWW
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You could have a look at those biochemistry e-books I uploaded to the "upload" folder of the FTP a few days ago, where they are in a special
sub-folder.
John W.
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Hulk
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Hi John,
I would love to view the e-books you downloaded. But I have to wait for approval.
Hi chemoleo,
What type of format is needed. I can scan and save as bmp or pcx. I can't convert to pdf. Though I worry about copyrights.
The first book Biotechnology Projects for Young Scientists is readily available and very cheap($9.95 canadian). The isbn # is 0-531-15913-2.
The second book by William Berman Experimental Biology can be found used it's isbn # is 0668032391. But other than that hard to find. This I may
try to scan this book for others. I was lucky I bought this book many years ago when I had a lab in my parents place and there wasn't so many
restrictions on owning a home lab.
I do believe these 2 books are a great way to start out experimenting in the biotech area.
I will countinue to add sites and books in this area as I find them and learn more about this area(remeber I am a beginner too).
Hulk
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chemoleo
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Oh, I think the main bulk of the work is scanning. If you can get high res scans done on the pages (600 dpi, 256 grey tone, or so they say), then I am
sure some member will be happy to help in OCRing this and converting this to pdf format.
I think anyone who scans a book will have forum-love guaranteed forever -
providing it's a good and interesting book, of course.
More info is here:
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=2442
Never Stop to Begin, and Never Begin to Stop...
Tolerance is good. But not with the intolerant! (Wilhelm Busch)
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CherrieBaby
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I disagree. I think the main work is in the OCR. This is especially so with science writings due to the large number of unconventional layouts and
unfamiliar symbols used.
If you're in the market for a new scanner check the speed when using 600 dpi optical - it can be very slow. If you have any respect for quality
you'll want to use 600 dpi, especially for some of those journals with their tiny writing.
Anyone have any recommendations for a good cheap scanner that scans 600 dpi at a reasonalble speed? [Yo, even though the main work is the OCR I still
hate waiting for the scanner to do its thing]
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Kanem
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To get back on topic:
Do you have suggestions for an Agar-Agar substitute, to grow something on (bacteria/mould or yeast)?
I thought about a mixture of gelatine or starch, sugar and instant bouillon.
But how much of each?
Kanem
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Organikum
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| Quote: |
Do you have suggestions for an Agar-Agar substitute, to grow something on (bacteria/mould or yeast)?
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You can use a glucose solution for submerged culture instead of agar plates. Works well with yeast and many fungi.
A lot on techniques and tricks can be learned from people growing magic mushrooms. Have a look here
/ORG
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dr. nick
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If one wanted to get something produced by bacteria, say, propionic acid from bacteria propionii, for example and had abolutely no clue (huh, who
could that be?) - what would you suggest? Any advisable approach? any recommendable reads?
Thanks a lot!
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kyanite
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Has anyone read up on the Tobbaco Mosaic Virus?
It's a single-strand RNA virus, apx 6 genes and is a stick type virus( not
very knowledgeable with this subject). My bio textbook says that under reaction with "agents such as concentrated acetic acid" the RNA and
proteins fall apart! Is that cool or what Not only this, but TMV can also "spontaniously reassemble under suitable
conditions", reforming TMV thats "indistinguishable in structure and infectivity"
Cool.
Reading on some more, this virus stuff is pretty interesting, but alas, I fear experimenting in this feild is probably impossible to us
I wonder if it's possibe to replace the DNA.Just think of the experimenting we could do..
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