Medical Dirt - The Search for New Antibiotics in Our Backyards
Location
CoLab, OCB 100
Start Date
28-4-2017 11:00 AM
End Date
28-4-2017 12:45 PM
Document Type
Poster
Description
The development and evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria have serious implications in the medical, biological and pharmaceutical drug industries. In recent years, antibiotic resistance – specifically in ESKAPE pathogens - has become a top research priority in biomedical studies; moreover, it is imperative that science continues to discover novel ways of competing with these elusive bacteria. It is the goal of this research project to try an isolate a new antibiotic (via secondary metabolites) out of soil found in our everyday environment. In this study, a sample of soil was harvested from a location near a garden in Olathe, Kansas. This soil was diluted, placed onto agar culture plates and allowed to grow in a controlled environment; once the bacteria had grown on several different cultures, “candidates” for antibiotics were screened by observing different colonies and their interactions with one another on agar. Using standard microbiological laboratory techniques, these candidates were placed onto a patch plate and matched up against common relatives to ESKAPE pathogens on a variety of proof plates. The soil produced two potential candidates, “#4” and “#6”, for further analysis after they inhibited the growth of Bacillus subtilus and Enterococcus faecalis respectively. It is hoped that these two candidates are successful with future metabolic testing and DNA sequencing and will provide fresh information into the study of antibiotic resistance.
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Medical Dirt - The Search for New Antibiotics in Our Backyards
CoLab, OCB 100
The development and evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria have serious implications in the medical, biological and pharmaceutical drug industries. In recent years, antibiotic resistance – specifically in ESKAPE pathogens - has become a top research priority in biomedical studies; moreover, it is imperative that science continues to discover novel ways of competing with these elusive bacteria. It is the goal of this research project to try an isolate a new antibiotic (via secondary metabolites) out of soil found in our everyday environment. In this study, a sample of soil was harvested from a location near a garden in Olathe, Kansas. This soil was diluted, placed onto agar culture plates and allowed to grow in a controlled environment; once the bacteria had grown on several different cultures, “candidates” for antibiotics were screened by observing different colonies and their interactions with one another on agar. Using standard microbiological laboratory techniques, these candidates were placed onto a patch plate and matched up against common relatives to ESKAPE pathogens on a variety of proof plates. The soil produced two potential candidates, “#4” and “#6”, for further analysis after they inhibited the growth of Bacillus subtilus and Enterococcus faecalis respectively. It is hoped that these two candidates are successful with future metabolic testing and DNA sequencing and will provide fresh information into the study of antibiotic resistance.
Comments
The faculty supervisor on this project is Heather Seitz, Biology.