Digging Up Dirt On Antibiotic Resistance
Abstract
Since the dawn of man, an invisible war has been waging right under our noses; I call it bacterial warfare. Every day, our innate and adaptive immune systems are in a constant struggle against microbes that want to use our bodies as breeding grounds. In every type of warfare, weapons and technologies are constantly evolving in ways necessary to fend off our foes. In the case of bacterial warfare, our most recent technological advancement is antibiotics. In retaliation, our enemy has advanced in ways to combat our technology using its own form of adaptive immunity. Since the mid 1900s, after our discovery of antibiotics, bacteria have been able to resist antibiotics. The misuse, underuse, and overuse of antibiotics has opened up a weak spot in our defenses, allowing our enemy to gain some ground. Now we must find new ways to move forward with our battle against the microbe. The introduction of the Small Worlds Initiative in 2012 opened up a new front in the war, which allows for the research and development of antibiotics that will aid in our fight.
Poster
Mini Bio
My name is Tyler Burns. I’m a 25 year old student at Penn State Schuylkill, and I’m currently enrolled in the Joseph McCloskey School of Nursing class of 2022. I live with someone with a compromised immune system, so this semester of microbiology has not only been interesting, but incredibly informative. I’m very excited to be a part of this program that will hopefully gain some ground in the fight against antibiotic resistance.