Discovering New Antibiotics In The Soil: The Small World Initiative 
Abstract
The Small World Program and Tiny Earth Initiative are two networks that allow us, as
students, to try and discover antibiotics in the soil. This project allows us to possibly help make a
positive impact in the world by potentially increasing the supply of effective antibiotics
available. In this project, we gathered soil samples from our Pennsylvania State Schuylkill
campus, and used it to perform various tests in the laboratory. We grew these samples, and
looked for those bacteria who could be potential antibiotic producers. Individually, we performed
serial dilutions, along with narrowing our many bacterium down to just a few that seemed to
have the most productivity. With the narrowed bacterium, we performing tests to characterize
our samples, including Mannitol Salt Agar (MSA), MacConkey’s Agar (MAC), Eosin Methylene
Blue agar (EMB), DNAse, (TSA) which is Tryptic soy agar, Endo, Starch agar, and blood agar.
We also had done other testing in tubes. We did 3 slants, 2 deeps, and 7 broths. The testing done
in the tubes are as followed- Triple sugar iron agar, Citrate, Nutrient Agar, (SIM) media which
Sulfur Indole Motility, Gelatin Agar, (MR/VP) which is Methyl Red Voges Proskauer, Nitrate,
Phenol Red test, Lactose Broth, Glucose, Fructose, Sucrose, and the Oxidase Test. The results
of these tests provide some new information. I believe that no matter how the results turned out –
Penn State’s nursing students made a difference because we tried to find new antibiotics to make
a positive impact in the world of medicine.
Poster
Presentation
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Mini Bio
My name is Cally Chiccini, and I am a nursing major at Pennsylvania State University. Next fall, I will be attending the Joseph F. McCloskey School of Nursing. My goal in life is to make a positive impact on this earth. I believe that by being involved in the Small World Tiny Earth Program that I am doing that. I hope that someone from my program was able to find a new antibiotic that can further help in the study of medicine.