Document Type

Conference Paper/Presentation

Publication Date

11-16-2019

Advisor(s)

John Thurmond, PhD

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance has become a prevalent phenomenon and now poses a great threat to public health. In the United States alone, more than 2 million citizens suffer from a disease related to antimicrobial resistance, of which an estimated 23,000 people will die per year.1 To combat the growing threat of such illnesses, several researchers have tested for new microbes from the soil that exhibit antimicrobial properties against these newly resistant pathogens. A study conducted by A.A. Elbendary and his research group collected soil isolates from Egypt and identified bacterial samples K. kristinae, K. rosea, S. griseus, and S. flaveolus as resistant against S. aureus, B. cereus, E. coli, and K. pneumoniae.2 In another study, Z. Nasfi tested 373 bacterial strains isolated from soil in Tunisia against E. coli and S. aureus and found 29 strains to be resistant.3 The bioactive substances in these new microbes have the potential to be used as antibiotics.

Our project expands on the work of these previous studies but targets safe surrogates of ESKAPE pathogens, specifically B. subtilis, E. raffinosus, A. baylyi, P. putida, P. fluorescens, and E. coli.4 Our goal is to identify novel microbes showing resistance to the safe strains of these pathogens and to extract their bioactive compounds for new antibiotics

Available for download on Wednesday, January 01, 2025

Share

COinS