Cultivation of Soil Microorganisms in Overland Park, KS
Location
CoLab, COM 316
Start Date
30-4-2026 2:30 PM
Document Type
Poster
Description
Antibiotic resistance is on the rise causing a public health crisis as new antibiotic discovery has stalled. The Tiny Earth project seeks to mobilize students to discover potential new antibiotic compounds by cultivation of soil microorganisms taken from samples across the U.S. My soil sample was collected from my front yard. I performed a standard serial dilution and identified 14 potentially antibiotic producing colonies to plate; of those I screened 10 bacterial candidates against 6 safe relatives of ESKAPE pathogens. Candidate Helen inhibited growth in 3 of them; P. putida, S. epidermidis, E. faecalis. Helen is producing an antibiotic that could prove useful in a clinic setting and therefore justifies further investigation.
Image
Cultivation of Soil Microorganisms in Overland Park, KS
CoLab, COM 316
Antibiotic resistance is on the rise causing a public health crisis as new antibiotic discovery has stalled. The Tiny Earth project seeks to mobilize students to discover potential new antibiotic compounds by cultivation of soil microorganisms taken from samples across the U.S. My soil sample was collected from my front yard. I performed a standard serial dilution and identified 14 potentially antibiotic producing colonies to plate; of those I screened 10 bacterial candidates against 6 safe relatives of ESKAPE pathogens. Candidate Helen inhibited growth in 3 of them; P. putida, S. epidermidis, E. faecalis. Helen is producing an antibiotic that could prove useful in a clinic setting and therefore justifies further investigation.
Comments
The faculty mentor for this project was Eulandria Biddle.