Bacterial Candidates from Soil Sample to Make New Antibiotics
Location
CoLab, OCB 100
Start Date
27-4-2018 12:00 PM
Document Type
Poster
Description
Over the last couple of decades more diseases have become resistant to commonly used antibiotics. Making it difficult, sometimes impossible, to treat people once infected. However many antibiotics are actually produced by using bacteria. The goal of my research project is to find bacterial candidates collected from a soil sample and see if any of them work against antibiotic resistant pathogens. I collected a local soil sample and cultured it to isolate different bacterial colonies. I made master plates to compile and further observe candidate bacteria. Bacteria candidates, that showed good resistance or inhibition zone on master plates, are then tested against tester strains to see if the candidates inhibit their growth. The tester strains are closely related species of bacteria that share many of the same metabolic characteristics of what are known as “ESKAPE pathogens”. ESKAPE pathogens are the six organisms (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter species) that are currently the leading cause of nosocomial infections throughout the world. Tester stains act as safe relative to ESKAPE pathogens, so the bacterial candidates can be tested in lab for antibiotic resistance. I will also be preforming microscopy, staining, metabolic and biochemical testing, PCR and sequencing to further identify candidates. It’s my hope that one of the bacterial candidates from the soil sample, or my overall research, can be used in the future to help produce new antibiotics.
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Bacterial Candidates from Soil Sample to Make New Antibiotics
CoLab, OCB 100
Over the last couple of decades more diseases have become resistant to commonly used antibiotics. Making it difficult, sometimes impossible, to treat people once infected. However many antibiotics are actually produced by using bacteria. The goal of my research project is to find bacterial candidates collected from a soil sample and see if any of them work against antibiotic resistant pathogens. I collected a local soil sample and cultured it to isolate different bacterial colonies. I made master plates to compile and further observe candidate bacteria. Bacteria candidates, that showed good resistance or inhibition zone on master plates, are then tested against tester strains to see if the candidates inhibit their growth. The tester strains are closely related species of bacteria that share many of the same metabolic characteristics of what are known as “ESKAPE pathogens”. ESKAPE pathogens are the six organisms (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter species) that are currently the leading cause of nosocomial infections throughout the world. Tester stains act as safe relative to ESKAPE pathogens, so the bacterial candidates can be tested in lab for antibiotic resistance. I will also be preforming microscopy, staining, metabolic and biochemical testing, PCR and sequencing to further identify candidates. It’s my hope that one of the bacterial candidates from the soil sample, or my overall research, can be used in the future to help produce new antibiotics.
Comments
The faculty supervisor for this project was Jon Kniss, Biology.