Illuminating microbial “dark matter” for antibiotic discovery
- Research Opportunity
- PhD students, Masters by Research, Honours students
- Number of Honour Places Available
- 1
- Number of Master Places Available
- 1
- Department / Centre
- Microbiology and Immunology
- Location
- Doherty Institute
Primary Supervisor | Number | Webpage | |
---|---|---|---|
Dr Sacha Pidot | sacha.pidot@unimelb.edu.au | 9035 3129 | Personal web page |
Co-supervisor | Number | Webpage | |
---|---|---|---|
Professor Tim Stinear | tstinear@unimelb.edu.au | 8344 5693 | Personal web page |
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.
Faculty Research Themes
School Research Themes
Research Opportunities
PhD students, Masters by Research, Honours students
Students who are interested in joining this project will need to consider their elegibility as well as other requirements before contacting the supervisor of this research
Key Contact
For further information about this research, please contact a supervisor.
Department / Centre
Research Node
Doherty InstituteMDHS Research library
Explore by researcher, school, project or topic.