Undergraduate biology students at Lehigh University are using the LVEM bench-top TEM from Delong America to evaluate bacteriophages obtained from local soil samples.
Starting with a tube of dirt collected from a location of their choice, each student underwent the process of isolating and purifying their bacteriophages from plaques on bacterial lawns.
Plaques were selected and purified by repeated plating and observation.
From their final isolate, each student prepared a high titer lysate containing more than 108 bacteriophages per millilitre.
The students deposited 10ul of this lysate onto a 400 mesh copper grid containing holey carbon coated with an ultrathin carbon film.
The grids were then washed twice with water before applying a two per cent ammonium molybdate stain.
Phage images were used to determine which phages would be selected for further study in TEM mode on the LVEM5 bench-top transmission electron microscope.
