DUKE-further research in the field of microbiology

Over the summer, I was accepted into the Hofstra University Research Program to work along side with my mentor, Dr. JW. I investigated why Streptomyces venezuelae, a soil bacterium, could not be able to grow in a liquid environment. Normally, when Streptomyces venezuelae is plated in liquid, it is currently known to produce over two-thirds of the antibiotics in use today. However, there is a disadvantage of growing such bacteria in a solid substrate: the growth kinetics, or the association between the growth rate and producing a certain antibiotic, is hindered due to the vegetative hyphae formation that grows in a non-dispersed manner. A solution to this problem could be to grow the bacterium in a liquid environment in which the hyphae can be fully dispersed in the liquid, so that spectrophotometic assays could be taken to measure the growth kinetics. As the bacteria, both liquid grown and solid grown, were viewed under the microscope, I observed a pattern in the spores of the solid grown bacteria but failed to view that pattern in the liquid grown spores. To understand the mechanism behind it, I used a program called ImageJ to measure the spore lengths of the two cultures of bacterium and created a histogram to calculate the standard error of the two plates. Eventually, the result proved that Streptomyces venezuelae could not grow in a liquid environment because the spores were abnormal in the liquid cultures. This technique can be implemented in Biophysics and microbiology research.

After conducting this project, I realized that antibiotic research could be the lifelong endeavor of scientists. For example, I have spent two months collecting data, one month refining my theory, and two months to organize a formal science report. However difficult and time-consuming the project was, I am glad to have such a remarkable experience. In the future, I aspire to participate in interdisciplinary research to address problems that humanity faces.