The Upper School as a Eukaryotic Cell

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Helicobacter Pylori Bacteria

A bacterium of helicobacter pylori

Helicobacter pylori is kind of bacteria that is harmful to humans.  It is most often found in the stomach on the mucus walls specifically in the antrum and when present, it can cause stomach pains and inflammation of the stomach lining which can lead to ulcers and stomach cancer.  It is usually about 3 micrometers long and in the picture to the right and below, you can see that it is a bacillus bacteria because of its rod shape.  You can also see the flagella coming off the end.  These help the bacteria to move through liquids like lumen in the stomach. However, lumen is acidic and helicobacter pylori survives better in a neutral chemical so when it senses lumen, it swims away to a more neutral part of the stomach.  Ulcers develop in one out of every six people that are infected by the bacteria.  There are several tests that can be used to detect if the bacteria have infected someone.  Once someone is infected by helicobacter pylori it is difficult to kill off the bacteria.  This is because when that person is given antibiotics, the bacteria often develops an immunity to the medicine.  To help avoid this, several antibiotics are often taken at once to decrease the probability of the bacteria developing an immunity.  Another way to get rid of this harmful bacteria is by way of another kind of bacteria,lactobacillus casei.  This bacteria is also found in the stomach near where helicobacter pylori is found and can help to fight against it.

A bacterium of helicobacter pylori

 Sources:
 https://health.google.com/health/ref/Helicobacter+pylori
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicobacter_pylori
http://www.medicinenet.com/helicobacter_pylori/article.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactobacillus_casei
http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=13896396

Image Sources:
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2005/press.html
http://i.rosaceans.com/archives/497
http://www.steadyhealth.com/articles/Helicobacter_pylori__The_Bacteria_that_Cause_Ulcers_a71.html

Macromolecules Lab Reflection

In a lab that I completed in biology, I tested for four macromolecules, in a onion while other groups tested for these same macromolecules in other substances.  These four macromolecules were proteins, glucose, starch, and lipids.  To test for each one we used different reagent tests to show if the macromolecules were present or not.  For testing for proteins we used a bright blue biuret solution.  Since the solution turned brown when it was combined with the onion, that meant that there was a presence of proteins.  With the benedict solution, there was glucose if the solution turned a green to orange color.  In the linked picture you can see an example of the color change.  We used a lugols iodine solution to detect starch and rubbed the onion on brown paper to detect lipids.  Me and my partner determined that onions do contain protein and glucose, but starch and lipid macromolecules are not present.  I liked this lab because it was fun preforming each test and seeing if the macromolecules are present or not. Although, these results were a little different from the predictions that we made, I think they were accurate for the most part.  Some of the results to other people's substances surprised me.  For instance, I thought that the lemon would probably have at least one of the four but it ended up having none.  Some were obvious like it was apparent that the strawberry would have glucose because it is sugary and a that potato would have starch.

Nucleic Acids (Jing)

This is a Jing presentation I made about Nucleic Acids.