Alpha Nine Antibiotic Potential
Location
CoLab, OCB 100
Start Date
28-4-2017 1:00 PM
End Date
28-4-2017 2:45 PM
Document Type
Poster
Description
There is a need for new antibiotics due to increasing antibiotic resistance and decreased research in new antibiotic development. Drug companies are focusing more on drugs to treat chronic diseases instead of infectious diseases that antibiotics can treat. The majority of antibiotics in use today were originally sourced from the soil. One way we can help in the search for new antibiotics is by participating in the Small World Initiative to crowd source the search for new potential antibiotics. Bacteria in the soil secrete secondary metabolites that can have antibiotic properties. By testing soil samples throughout the United States we may discover new sources of bacteria to create antibiotics from. A sample of soil was obtained from my backyard and serial diluted to separate the different bacteria contained in the sample. One bacteria identified as alpha nine (A9) was isolated and tested against different ESKAPE pathogens. EKSCAPE pathogens are safe relatives of multidrug resistant bacteria. A9 shown some inhibition against: E. coli, S. epidermidis, E. aerogenes. Further analysis including polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and DNA sequencing will be performed to determine if A9 is a new undiscovered bacteria and if so what close relatives it may have.
Image
Alpha Nine Antibiotic Potential
CoLab, OCB 100
There is a need for new antibiotics due to increasing antibiotic resistance and decreased research in new antibiotic development. Drug companies are focusing more on drugs to treat chronic diseases instead of infectious diseases that antibiotics can treat. The majority of antibiotics in use today were originally sourced from the soil. One way we can help in the search for new antibiotics is by participating in the Small World Initiative to crowd source the search for new potential antibiotics. Bacteria in the soil secrete secondary metabolites that can have antibiotic properties. By testing soil samples throughout the United States we may discover new sources of bacteria to create antibiotics from. A sample of soil was obtained from my backyard and serial diluted to separate the different bacteria contained in the sample. One bacteria identified as alpha nine (A9) was isolated and tested against different ESKAPE pathogens. EKSCAPE pathogens are safe relatives of multidrug resistant bacteria. A9 shown some inhibition against: E. coli, S. epidermidis, E. aerogenes. Further analysis including polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and DNA sequencing will be performed to determine if A9 is a new undiscovered bacteria and if so what close relatives it may have.
Comments
The faculty supervisor on this project is Jamie Cunningham, Biology.