9. Most bacteria (~99.99999%) are HARMLESS!
Lactobacillus acidophilus
Helps digest food, makes vitamins
~0.00001% bacteria can cause disease
Staphylococcus
Streptococcus
Infects human tissue—can make you very sick
Strep throat
10. How do we stop bad bacteria??
Important: bacteria and viruses are very different!
Antibiotics don’t work on viruses like the flu or the
common cold!
11. Where do antibiotics come from?
• Humans have basically never come up with an
antibiotic on our own… we always steal them
from nature!
• Most of our current antibiotics come from
bacteria and fungi that live in the soil
• We need to find new antibiotics, because
bacteria are becoming resistant to the ones
we have now!
12. My lab looks for bacteria that
MAKE antibiotics
Streptomyces bacteria are known to make antibiotics
13. Collecting soil samples and isolating
bacteria
We spread soil samples on plates like these that
have the right kind of food for the bacteria we want.
When the bacteria grow up, they look like this!
14. Sometimes we just mess around…
Bacterial Abe Lincoln!
Bacterial longhorn!
SCIENCE IS FUN!!!!
15. What did we learn?
• Microbiology is the study of microbes
– Microscopic, single-celled living organisms
• There are more bacteria cells in your body than
human cells! That’s okay because most bacteria
are harmless and some are helpful.
• Almost all the antibiotics we have came from
bacteria and fungi that live in the soil!
• It’s important to look for new antibiotics, to fight
off resistant strains of bacteria that keep popping
up in hospitals and the community
16. Thanks!
“I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter, dancing through the fire
Cause I am a champion and you’re gonna hear me ROAR”
