Start Date
28-4-2022 9:00 AM
Document Type
Poster
Description
Antibiotic resistance is an increasing issue in the medical field. As microbes evolve, they become increasingly resistant to various antibiotics, making infections more difficult to treat. Microbes found in soil have led us to find most of the antibiotics that we use today. Because of antibiotic resistance, we are searching for new antibiotics, and we are hoping to find that in soil. ESKAPE is an acronym for six highly virulent pathogens that have developed resistance against antibiotics. For this experiment, safe relatives of the ESKAPE pathogens were used and challenged against potential candidates found in a soil sample that could produce antibiotic characteristics against a pathogen. Once a candidate was established, the identity of the microbe was found using a polymerase chain reaction. Discoveries such as this can have a substantial impact on treatments in medicine and can make progress on the issue of antibiotic resistance, potentially saving lives.
Soil Microbes and Antibiotic Resistance
Antibiotic resistance is an increasing issue in the medical field. As microbes evolve, they become increasingly resistant to various antibiotics, making infections more difficult to treat. Microbes found in soil have led us to find most of the antibiotics that we use today. Because of antibiotic resistance, we are searching for new antibiotics, and we are hoping to find that in soil. ESKAPE is an acronym for six highly virulent pathogens that have developed resistance against antibiotics. For this experiment, safe relatives of the ESKAPE pathogens were used and challenged against potential candidates found in a soil sample that could produce antibiotic characteristics against a pathogen. Once a candidate was established, the identity of the microbe was found using a polymerase chain reaction. Discoveries such as this can have a substantial impact on treatments in medicine and can make progress on the issue of antibiotic resistance, potentially saving lives.
Comments
The faculty mentor for this project was Angela Consani, Biology.