How the soil can help with your health
Abstract
In this project you will be learning about how through Penn State Schuylkill, the Small World Initiative and Tiny Earth Program, we were able to do real life research. Research that could make a difference, related to all our lives – work related to antibiotic discovery. With an interest in the nursing field, the project gives us more of an appreciation and a look into the ‘behind the scenes’ requirements for the development of new medications. At one point or another, everyone has had to take an antibiotic, but over time bacteria can become immune to it. When they become immune to it, this leads us to find other antibiotics to use. Thanks to this project it helps educate us on finding bacteria producing antibiotics, which then we can use to educate the public. It also gives us a chance to help the medical community, if we are able to find a new antibiotic class. Within the project, we each obtained soil from the campus grounds, diluted and plated it, in order to find potential antibiotic-producing bacteria. Several colonies were selected and followed throughout the semester in order to characterize the bacteria. The results of these studies follow.
Poster