The Search for a New Antibiotic
Location
CoLab, OCB 100
Start Date
28-4-2017 11:00 AM
End Date
28-4-2017 12:45 PM
Document Type
Poster
Description
There is a global health crisis happening in our world today: the appearance of harmful ESKAPE pathogens that are resistant to the most common antibiotics that are used in medicine today. It is important for researchers to search for and discover new antibiotics that are not resistant to these pathogens. As years go by, theses pathogens are becoming more and more resistant. Unfortunately, leading pharmaceutical companies have retreated from investing in the discovery of new antibiotics, due to modest profitability. As a student participating in the Small World Initiative program, my goal is to gather soil samples from local environments and isolate the bacteria from them using a dilution-and agar-plating method. The point of this is to find bacterial candidates that produce a zone of inhibition, a clear area around the bacteria where there’s no bacterial growth. This shows that the bacteria are unable to spread to other bacteria on the plate. The bacterial candidates are then screened against ESKAPE pathogen relatives using a proof-plating technique to determine if they produce an antibiotic. One candidate in my research created a zone of inhibition around Pseudomonas putida, a safe relative of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The zone of inhibition around the candidate shows the possibility of it producing an antibiotic that may be used to resist against the harmful pathogen, P. aeruginosa. This is a step in the right direction, however, further testing must be done to confirm if the bacterial candidate produces a new antibiotic that can aid in fighting this pathogen.
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The Search for a New Antibiotic
CoLab, OCB 100
There is a global health crisis happening in our world today: the appearance of harmful ESKAPE pathogens that are resistant to the most common antibiotics that are used in medicine today. It is important for researchers to search for and discover new antibiotics that are not resistant to these pathogens. As years go by, theses pathogens are becoming more and more resistant. Unfortunately, leading pharmaceutical companies have retreated from investing in the discovery of new antibiotics, due to modest profitability. As a student participating in the Small World Initiative program, my goal is to gather soil samples from local environments and isolate the bacteria from them using a dilution-and agar-plating method. The point of this is to find bacterial candidates that produce a zone of inhibition, a clear area around the bacteria where there’s no bacterial growth. This shows that the bacteria are unable to spread to other bacteria on the plate. The bacterial candidates are then screened against ESKAPE pathogen relatives using a proof-plating technique to determine if they produce an antibiotic. One candidate in my research created a zone of inhibition around Pseudomonas putida, a safe relative of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The zone of inhibition around the candidate shows the possibility of it producing an antibiotic that may be used to resist against the harmful pathogen, P. aeruginosa. This is a step in the right direction, however, further testing must be done to confirm if the bacterial candidate produces a new antibiotic that can aid in fighting this pathogen.
Comments
The faculty supervisor on this project is Heather Seitz, Biology.