1. How Effective Iodine Is Against Acanthamoeba Paul E. Seibers III Undergraduate Student (Microbiology Concentration) Department of Biology Tennessee Technological University Cookeville, TN 38505

2. Project Summary 1. Introduction a. Background of Acanthamoeba b. Problem- Disinfectants of today. 2. Objective/hypothesis a. Find better disinfectant b. Iodine is highly effective against Acanthamoeba. 3. Methods and Materials. 4. Expected Results and Benefits 5. Project Timeline- End of Research March 24, 2006 6. Budget- $3,786

3. Introduction Acanthamoebas- Single-celled organisms in the Protista kingdom that can cause skin and eye infections.

4. Environment: They can inhabit soils, dust, and any type of fresh water, including our drinking water. Infectious: Eye infection, lesions on skin, and severe sickness. Accessible through cuts on skin, oral and nasal ingestion, and water splashed in eyes. Problem: Chlorine may be a strong disinfectant against bacteria, but Acanthamoeba are more resistant (Cursons and Brown 1980). Form cyst in harsh environments. Cursons R. T. M, and T. J Brown. 1980. Effect of Disinfectants on Pathogenic Free-Living Amoeba: in Axenic Conditions. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 40: 62-66

5. Objective/Hypothesis Objective- Test effectiveness of Iodine against Acanthamoeba. Hypothesis- Iodine is highly effective. Possibly better than chlorine.

6. Methods and Materials 1. Growing Acanthamoeba a. cultivated using PCB(plate count broth), which consists of 5 g bacto typtone, 2.5 bacto yeast extract, 1 bacto dextrose, and 15 g bacto agar for liter with a final pH of 7.0 ±.2 at 25˚C. b. Incubated at 25˚C. c. Washed in Osterhoult buffer tris salt solution

7. 2. Determine range of concentration for lethal dose through a practice run. 3. Find lethal dose rate. a. Self-Count amoeba with inverted microscope.

8. b. Set up iodine concentrations. c. After amoeba are exposed for a certain length of time, count the number alive.

9. Expected Results and Benefits TABLE 1. Iodine Disinfectent Vial 1 (10%)Vial 2 (1%)Vial 3 (.1%)Vial 4 (.01%)Vial 5 (.001)Vial 6 (.0001) AcanthamoebaAll deadFew deadAll alive

11. Benefits: 1. By conducting this research, the effectiveness of iodine will be determined against Acanthamoeba. 2. A question to whether or not iodine would be a suitable disinfectant for water treatment will be answered. 3. Possibility of iodine being stronger then chlorine. 4. Research could improve the health of people.

12. Project Timeline

13. Budget Total Costs: $3786

14. Questions?