Project:

From zoo to you: microbes found in petting zoo adjacent giftshops

Students:

Xuemin Weng, Ezekiel Deveyra

Institution:

Mount Sinai,

Mentors:

Laurence Webb

Abstract:

*Copied from specific aims of the proposal. Placeholder for abstract. "We want to assess properly the difference in the microbiome of the gift shop’s souvenirs after being touched by visitors petting certain animals at the zoo. In addition, we will compare the microbiomes of the souvenirs near the petting zoo against souvenirs from Times Square. Different people who live in different places and have different quotidian routines will accumulate different species and amounts of microbes. This can help us deduce whether or not the initial microbiome of an object can significantly be influenced by what kinds of bacteria it can be picked up by zoo visitors and if it leads to higher occurrences of antibody-resistant bacteria. Another goal of ours is to take our data analysis and address the imminent issues of what we found. What if we do find that many people come in contact with dangerous pathogens at the zoo? What if our data corroborates the possibility of visitors contracting E. Coil f

Poster:

Team samples: