Tiny Microbes, Big Discoveries!

Tiny Earth presents a student-led research project to focus on identifying potential antibiotic producing microorganisms from soil. The growing issue of antibiotic resistance has a major threat in modern medicine, many common bacterial infections are becoming difficult to treat worldwide. The cause of the issue comes from the rapid evolution of bacteria. This research is focused on finding bacteria in soil that can produce antibiotics. After testing the soil bacteria against safe relatives of the ESKAPE pathogens, no inhibitions were revealed. However, additional candidates are being isolated and will be tested against the ESKAPEs to look for inhibition. Once found additional tests will be conducted to identify the organism. These findings highlight the importance of soil and how it's a valuable resource for discovering new antibiotics.