Research
We are currently involved in four research projects:
- Collecting, isolating and characterising wild yeast strains from local orchards ;
- Designing, building and maintaining a photobioreactor for microalgae ;
- Determining and monitoring water quality of the nearby Alzette river ;
- Extracting and quantifying microplastic pollutants in soil.
In the past, we've conducted experiments and studies on a wide range of topics, including:
- Determination of physical and chemical properties of honey ;
- Extraction, detection and quantification of microplastics in soil samples ;
- Producing perfume from waste ;
- Determining the source of microorganisms in sour dough fermentation ;
- Characterising the fermentation processes of ginger bug and kombucha ;
- Making yogurt using plant-based milk alternatives ;
- Comparing the fermentability of different cereal grains for beer production.
Workshops
We organise a range of training workshops, targeted at audiences of all levels. These are held by adult supervisors, as well as advanced pupils. We currently offer the following workshops :
- Lab Skills (A. Ramada)
- Solution Chemistry (A. Ramada)
- Basic Microbiology (N. Aschman)
- Basic Molecular Biology (N. Aschman)
Equipment
- safety equipment ;
- basic lab equipment ;
- hotplate stirrers ;
- waterbath ;
- bench-top autoclave ;
- incubator ;
- orbital shaker (room temperature) ;
- vacuum filtration ;
- UV-Vis spectrophotometer ;
- micropipettes ;
- pipette controllers ;
- thermocycler (miniPCR mini16) ;
- agarose gel electrophoresis (miniPCR blueGel) ;
- microcentrifuge (Eppendorf MiniSpin) ;
- compound microscope with phototube (Motic BA310 LED) ;
- stereo microscope with cold light source & phototube ;
- DSLR camera (Canon EOS 100D).
The story so far...
The Life Sciences Lab (LSL) came into existence in 2016 as an elective course called Made by Microbes and initially focused on the study of fermented foods (yogurt, sourdough, beer, kombucha, vinegar, ginger ale, ...).