Illuminating microbial “dark matter” for antibiotic discovery

Summary This project will investigate the potential for antimicrobial production through co-culturing and induction across a range of actinomycete bacteria, testing for their ability to inhibit hospital superbugs, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and vancomycin-resistant enterococci. Students taking on this project will gain skills across the areas of genomics, molecular biology, biochemistry and mass spectrometry.

Project Details

The discovery of new antibiotics to combat the rising tide of antibiotic resistant bacteria has been hampered by the rediscovery of commonly encountered antibiotic compounds from soil bacteria. Genomics, however, has shown us that the well of antimicrobials is not yet dry and there are many more potential compounds left to find. To do this, however, new approaches are required. Recently, the incubation of different bacteria in co-culture or growth in the presence of sub-inhibitory concentrations of antibiotics has been shown to induce antibiotic production. This project will investigate the potential for antimicrobial production through co-culturing and induction across a range of actinomycete bacteria, testing for their ability to inhibit hospital superbugs, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and vancomycin-resistant enterococci. Students taking on this project will gain skills across the areas of genomics, molecular biology, biochemistry and mass spectrometry.