Microbe-Minute
Location
CoLab, COM 237
Start Date
30-4-2026 12:00 PM
Document Type
Poster
Description
The antibiotics we once trusted are losing their effectiveness. Bacteria are evolving faster than our medicines our being developed. I performed a serial dilution of soil to identify which microbes may be producing antibiotics. I then transferred the colonies that produced zones of inhibition to a master plate to store the colonies to later be screened against safe relatives of ESKAPE pathogens. When I screened the candidates one in particular was able to produce zones of inhibition against 4 of the 6 safe relatives it was screened against. This candidate was able to inhibit both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria indicating that it produces a broad-spectrum antibiotic. Finding new broad‑spectrum antibiotics is crucial because they can target multiple hard to treat pathogens at once, offering humans another way to fight back against harmful pathogens as antibiotic resistance rises.
Image
Microbe-Minute
CoLab, COM 237
The antibiotics we once trusted are losing their effectiveness. Bacteria are evolving faster than our medicines our being developed. I performed a serial dilution of soil to identify which microbes may be producing antibiotics. I then transferred the colonies that produced zones of inhibition to a master plate to store the colonies to later be screened against safe relatives of ESKAPE pathogens. When I screened the candidates one in particular was able to produce zones of inhibition against 4 of the 6 safe relatives it was screened against. This candidate was able to inhibit both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria indicating that it produces a broad-spectrum antibiotic. Finding new broad‑spectrum antibiotics is crucial because they can target multiple hard to treat pathogens at once, offering humans another way to fight back against harmful pathogens as antibiotic resistance rises.
Comments
The faculty mentor for this project was Eulandria Biddle.