Gemma Munck ’24, Biology major and Chemistry minor, shares about their internship with the Biology Laboratory at Oregon State University Cascades in Bend, OR
“My name is Gemma Munck and I will be graduating from Whitman College in the Spring of 2024. I am majoring in Biology with a minor in Chemistry. For my internship, I have been conducting research in the Biology Laboratory at Oregon State University Cascades alongside Dr. Bruce Seal and several undergraduate students in Bend, Oregon. We have been working on an ongoing project to identify and catalog bacteria that was isolated from the gastrointestinal tract of a free-ranging wolf. This project is based on the hypothesis that indigenous species of lactic acid bacteria promote anti-inflammatory immune responses in the monogastric animal gut. The long-term goal of this project is to develop a probiotic bacterial culture from the gastrointestinal material of the wolf that can be used for domestic dogs.
This past week on Thursday, I arrived at the laboratory around 9:00 am. After discussing our plan for the day, which was to conduct growth inhibition assays, we began by preparing plates containing the target bacteria: Staph aureus, Escherichia coli, and Micrococcus luteus. We placed a tube containing the specific bacterial isolate from the GI tract of the wolf in the centrifuge in order to pellet the bacteria and then poured off the remaining liquid media into another tube. We wanted to determine if the remaining liquid 
media contained antimicrobials released by the bacteria even though it no longer contained bacterial cells. In other words, we were trying to determine if the bacterial isolate from the wolf GI tract releases antimicrobials that can function in media once the bacteria is no longer present. Next, we vortexed the pelleted bacteria in the test tube in order to resuspend it. We placed round discs in both the test tubes (the test tube containing cells of the bacterial isolate and the test tube containing media that used to contain cells of the bacterial isolate) and allowed them to soak up the contents of the test tubes. Then, we placed these discs on the plates containing the different target bacteria and placed the plates in the incubator. These plates remained in the incubator overnight and we checked for zones of inhibition the next day. This is an example of my typical day in the lab. This work has helped me toward my goal of becoming a veterinarian by allowing me to develop laboratory techniques and skills that will be directly applicable in my future career. I have thoroughly enjoyed my internship thus far and am looking forward to learning as much as possible during the remainder of my time at OSU Cascades.”