Bioluminescence or ‘living light’, allows glow worms to lure food, fireflies to find a mate and nocturnal squid to camouflage themselves from predators. These slides are from a Ten by Ten talk given by Dr Siouxsie Wiles in which she explained how bioluminescence is helping scientists discover new medicines to kill the antibiotic-resistant superbugs that experts predict will bring about the end of modern medicine within the next decade. Tweets from the talk are storified here http://bit.ly/1HrAKvO and a recording of the talk is available here: http://bit.ly/1kNap0m

2. Nuria Andreu
Brian Robertson
Paul Elkington
Taryn Fletcher
Nitya Krishnan
Shiranee Sriskandan
Faraz Alam
Andrea Zelmer
Ulrich Schaible
Greg Bancroft
Simon Swift
Brent Copp
Bill Denny
Brian Palmer
Phil Crosier
David Jenkins
John Fraser
Kate Hannah
Richard Easther
Shaun Hendy
Jim Metson
Jimmy Dalton
Benedict Uy
Hannah Read
Zakieh Vahdati
Bevan Weir
Peter Buchanan

3. Part I
Superbugs
(AKA the microbial apocalypse…)
@SiouxsieW

4. @SiouxsieW

5. 3
@SiouxsieW

6. @SiouxsieW

7. “the end of modern medicine
as we know it”
Margaret Chan, Director General
World Health Organisation
@SiouxsieW

8. Part II
Living Light

10. @SiouxsieW

11. @SiouxsieW

12. @SiouxsieW

13. @SiouxsieW

14. @SiouxsieW

15. @SiouxsieW

16. Angels Glow
@SiouxsieW

17. Part III
Illuminating new
medicines

18. lux
operon
C D A B E
R T S
R
T S
-
Fatty Acid
(RCOOH)
Aldehyde
(RHO)
? ?
? ?
Luciferase
FMNH FMN
NAD(P) NAD(P)H
H+
Flavin
oxidoreductase
Light
(490nm)
O
2
H
2
O
lux
operon
C D A B E
R T S
R
T S
-
Fatty Acid
(RCOOH)
Aldehyde
(RHO)
? ?
? ?
Luciferase
FMNH
2
FMN
NAD(P)
H+
Flavin
oxidoreductase
Light
(490nm)
O
2
H
2
O
lux
operon
C D A B E
R T S
R
T S
R
T S
Fatty acid reductase complex-
Fatty Acid
(RCOOH)
Aldehyde
(RHO)
 
? ? 
Luciferase
FMNH FMN
NAD(P)
H+
Flavin
oxidoreductase
Light
(490nm)
O
2
H
2
O
Bioluminescence:
a simple chemical reaction
@SiouxsieW

19. @SiouxsieW

20. 12
Measuring bacteria with light
Bacterial numbers
Light
levels
@SiouxsieW

21. 14
@SiouxsieW

22. 15
@SiouxsieW

23. @SiouxsieW

24. @SiouxsieW

25. Where are the bacteria?
@SiouxsieW

26. Day 1
(10 min exp)
Day 3
(5 min exp)
Day 6
(1 min exp)
Day 8
(1 min exp)
Day 10
(1 min exp)
Day 14
(1 min exp)
103
106
103
Photonssec-1cm-2sr-1
Watching bacteria in real time
Wiles et al (2006). Infection and Immunity 74:5391-5396. @SiouxsieW

27. 1010
108
106
102
104
0 5 10 15 20 25
Time (days)
Numberofbacteria
(colonyformingunitspergramtissue)
Reducing animal use
Wiles et al (2004). Cellular Microbiology 6:963-972.
@SiouxsieW

28. Dennis et al (2008). Infection and Immunity. 76:4978-4988
Reducing animal use
Time (days)
Bioluminescence
@SiouxsieW

29. Part IV
Tuberculosis
(AKA the “Captain of Death”)

30. Mycobacterium tuberculosis
@SiouxsieW

31. TB in New Zealand
• 626 cases of TB reported in 2011
• 308 = infectious
• 318 = latent infection
• 54.2% in the Auckland region
Recent NZ Herald article placed the costs of
treating multi-drug resistant TB at
NZ$10,000 per month
@SiouxsieW

32. Andreu N, et al (2013). J Antimicrob Chemother. 68(9):2118-27. @SiouxsieW

33. Fish-fancier’s finger!
@SiouxsieW

34. Zebrafish for TB research
@SiouxsieW

35. Zebrafish for TB research
@SiouxsieW

36. Lightlevels
Time (days)
‘A’* ‘B’* ‘C’ ‘D’* ‘E’*
0 3 0 3 0 3 0 3 0 3 0 3 0 3 0 3
Untreated ‘F’* ‘Rif’
*No activity in vitro
Zebrafish for TB research
@SiouxsieW

37. Part V
Want to help?

38. NZ Fungi as a source
of new antibiotics?
Image credit: Landcare Research
@SiouxsieW

39. @SiouxsieW

40. www.givingtoauckland.org.nz/fungi

41. Biolumination II

42. www.redbubble.com/people/siouxsiew
Shop with us!

43. s.wiles@auckland.ac.nz
www.youtube.com/user/Skeptimoo
www.sciblogs.co.nz/infectious-thoughts/
www.superbugslab.org
@SiouxsieW