Soil’s Use in Fighting Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria
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 are many different types of bacteria in the world that cause many different infections. Providing ill patients with antibiotics used to be one of the simplest ways to end their infections. Now that some bacteria that cause infections are developing resistance to these antibiotics, it is becoming significantly more difficult to treat infected patients. A solution to solve this problem is to discover and produce more effective antibiotics. If more of these antibiotics exist, there will be more variety in treatment options for infected patients; this in turn will make combating infection a much easier process for all medical staff. The goal of our research is to discover new antibiotics that would be effective against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. What makes our research unique is the fact that we are attempting to identify new and effective antibiotics extracted from soil. Because there is such a diverse selection and large amount of soil in our world, the opportunity to discover new antibiotics is limitless due to the countless amounts of unique bacteria present within it. Although my sample of soil failed to provide any potential bacteria that contains antibiotics, there are many other students whose samples produced multiple promising bacteria. I adopted one of these promising bacteria for further research. The fact that multiple possible antibiotics can be acquired from a small sample of soil (less than a full Ziploc baggy) shows how significant this research can be in the fight against antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Image
Soil’s Use in Fighting Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria
CoLab, OCB 100
There are many different types of bacteria in the world that cause many different infections. Providing ill patients with antibiotics used to be one of the simplest ways to end their infections. Now that some bacteria that cause infections are developing resistance to these antibiotics, it is becoming significantly more difficult to treat infected patients. A solution to solve this problem is to discover and produce more effective antibiotics. If more of these antibiotics exist, there will be more variety in treatment options for infected patients; this in turn will make combating infection a much easier process for all medical staff. The goal of our research is to discover new antibiotics that would be effective against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. What makes our research unique is the fact that we are attempting to identify new and effective antibiotics extracted from soil. Because there is such a diverse selection and large amount of soil in our world, the opportunity to discover new antibiotics is limitless due to the countless amounts of unique bacteria present within it. Although my sample of soil failed to provide any potential bacteria that contains antibiotics, there are many other students whose samples produced multiple promising bacteria. I adopted one of these promising bacteria for further research. The fact that multiple possible antibiotics can be acquired from a small sample of soil (less than a full Ziploc baggy) shows how significant this research can be in the fight against antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Comments
The faculty supervisor on this project is Heather Seitz, Biology.