Antibiotics in Kansas Soil
Location
CoLab, OCB 100
Start Date
27-4-2018 12:00 PM
Document Type
Poster
Description
There is a pressing issue that needs to be solved that we don’t hear about often, and that is antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance is exactly what it sounds like: the bacteria that make us sick are becoming resistant to our antibiotics. This means that we need to discover new kinds of antibiotics. So, the scientists have looked towards us, the students, for answers. The purpose of this project has been to start a path of discovering antibiotic producing bacteria. To do so, I first collected a soil sample right outside of my apartment. I then ran what is called a serial dilution test to isolate the bacteria in the soil. After this, I isolated potential candidate bacteria and used tester strains to see if the bacteria showed any antibiotic properties against those strains. At this moment, I have not found any great candidates. Still, as I continue this project I will run a test to find out the DNA of the bacteria I have isolated. The positive from this is that we can rule out this kind of bacteria as antibiotic-producing and there will be no further need to test that bacteria. The negative side is that I most likely will not create a new antibiotic from this soil sample. This project is not only important to the microbiology community, the results of this influence anyone who uses antibiotics to treat infection. I’m glad to be a part of something that influences our society so greatly.
Image
Antibiotics in Kansas Soil
CoLab, OCB 100
There is a pressing issue that needs to be solved that we don’t hear about often, and that is antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance is exactly what it sounds like: the bacteria that make us sick are becoming resistant to our antibiotics. This means that we need to discover new kinds of antibiotics. So, the scientists have looked towards us, the students, for answers. The purpose of this project has been to start a path of discovering antibiotic producing bacteria. To do so, I first collected a soil sample right outside of my apartment. I then ran what is called a serial dilution test to isolate the bacteria in the soil. After this, I isolated potential candidate bacteria and used tester strains to see if the bacteria showed any antibiotic properties against those strains. At this moment, I have not found any great candidates. Still, as I continue this project I will run a test to find out the DNA of the bacteria I have isolated. The positive from this is that we can rule out this kind of bacteria as antibiotic-producing and there will be no further need to test that bacteria. The negative side is that I most likely will not create a new antibiotic from this soil sample. This project is not only important to the microbiology community, the results of this influence anyone who uses antibiotics to treat infection. I’m glad to be a part of something that influences our society so greatly.
Comments
The faculty supervisor for this project is Jon Kniss, Biology.