Amyloid fibers are proteins formed by repeating protein monomers which stack to create a cross‐beta sheet quaternary structure. Though the unregulated production of amyloid fibers is often associated with diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, amyloid fibers are also produced in a regulated manner by bacteria in biofilms. We isolated a number of tetracycline resistant soil bacteria from a pig farm in upstate New York and screened them for biofilm production with the crystal violet assay and amyloid formation using a Thioflavin T (ThT) assay. We focused on one species, Microbacterium oryzae isolate #29, which had the highest amyloid production. Five days of growth at ambient temperature in liquid R2A medium maximizes amyloid fiber recovery. An isolation procedure utilizing sonication and differential centrifugation to separate fibers from the cell (Jordal et al. 2009) was adapted for use with M. oryzae isolate #29. This procedure is being modified further to increase the percent recovery and improve purity. Two detergents, Triton X‐100 (TX‐100) and hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), were assessed as a means of disrupting the cell membranes to separate fibers from soluble proteins during the procedure. The fluorescence of the detergents below and above their critical micelle concentrations in the presence of ThT was investigated to determine whether adding a detergent treatment step would interfere with the ThT assay, as is the case for the commonly used detergent SDS. Additionally, sonication time was assessed to see if more fibers could be released from the cell. Preliminary results suggest that while neither detergent interferes with the ThT assay only the TX‐100 appears to improve yield, and that a longer sonication treatment results in a greater percent recovery in the ultracentrifuge pellet. Fibers will be purified further using preparatory SDS‐PAGE and depolymerized using formic acid. The purified fibers can be imaged by atomic force microscopy and the amyloid protein monomers will be sequenced.Support or Funding InformationSt. Lawrence University Fellowship Program, Departments of Chemistry and Biology, St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY 13617