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The Search for Novel Antibiotics

Keilyann Cruz Rivera Dra. Prachi Tripathi
Undergraduate student in Bachelor in Assistant Professor
Biology and NSF Research Trainee Department of Science and Technology

There have been great advances in the field of medicine in the last We grow (culture) bacteria from the ocean in the laboratory and study
century, and particularly so in the last few decades. But the ongoing it to find if any are capable of producing an antibiotic. When different
coronavirus pandemic has made one thing clear – there is a lot more to bacteria are allowed to grow on the same plate, we are able to see if
be understood and achieved if we want to secure the future of human one of them can prevent the others from growing. So far, we have
race on earth. Two key factors that have played a role in the been successful in growing a number of different bacteria from the
emergence and spread of disease are global warming and ever- ocean in our laboratory. It is interesting to note that even though this
increasing international travel. Both of these are very difficult to work sounds simple and straightforward, it can be very tricky because
control and as a result our best option for survival is to prepare different types of bacteria need different growing conditions. We have
ourselves to treat disease. already isolated one type of bacteria that shows activity against
another one. At present, we are engaged in experiments to improve
Antibiotics are a group of compounds that work against bacteria – growing conditions for our bacteria of interest, and the next step would
either by killing bacteria or preventing them from multiplying to large be to see how it works against different types of bacteria, particularly
numbers. Even at very low concentrations, antibiotics are extremely those that cause disease in humans.
efficient at controlling bacteria, making them a first line of defense
against illnesses. Antibiotics themselves belong to a larger group of References:
compounds called antimicrobials that are used to treat infections Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2020, July 20). Antibiotic/
caused by other microorganisms like fungi, virus and protozoa.
Microorganisms is the word for all tiny living organisms only visible antibacterial resistance (AR/AMR). https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/
to our eyes through an instrument called a microscope. The very first index.html
antibiotic to be discovered was penicillin and it still remains one of the The Nobel Prize. (2020). The Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine 1945: Sir
most widely used. It was discovered by Scottish physician and Alexander Fleming. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1945/fleming/
microbiologist Sir Alexander Fleming, who during one of his facts/
experiments saw that one fungus stopped a type of bacteria from
growing and killed it. In other words, some chemical produced by the
fungus was acting against the bacteria. Dr. Fleming performed more
experiments and identified this fungus as Penicillium. Later on, it
would be discovered that penicillin was effective for the treatment of a
number of diseases such as scarlet fever, pneumonia, gonorrhea,
meningitis and diphtheria. Other scientists also worked on penicillin
and were able to produce it in large quantities, and thousands of
soldiers who would have died from infected wounds during World
War II were saved by penicillin. With time, several other antibiotics
were discovered or developed based on the natural ones.

However, at present, one of the looming public health crises is the
emergence of antibiotic resistant bacteria, that do not respond to
antibiotic treatment. In fact, some bacteria are resistant to a number of
different antibiotics, and infections caused by such bacteria can be
extremely difficult to treat. One of the ways to meet this challenge is
to find new antibiotics. Sir Alexander Fleming humbly once said, “I
did not invent penicillin. Nature did that. I only discovered it by
accident.” In saying this, he was correct. Nature is a basket of
treasures waiting to be explored. In our research project, we turned to
the great ocean in search of new antibiotics.

www.br.inter.edu

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