Finding Antimicrobials

Penicillin, an antibiotic, was found in the 1920’s which was the start of natural occurring antimicrobials and was able to be used on humans to fight infections. Some bacteria have the ability to produce antimicrobials to better their chances of survival in a competitive environment. One competitive environment that is also readily available is soil. For this project, a soil sample was collected and studied to determine if the bacteria present had antimicrobial activity. They were called candidates and were moved to a master plate for further testing. The soil bacteria showed antimicrobial activity with 3 safe relative ESKAPE pathogens. Currently, a lot of antimicrobial research has stopped because antimicrobials are more difficult to find now. These series of experiments were done to try to fight the battle against antibiotic resistance with an intent to find new antibiotics.