Viterbo University assistant professor researches new antibiotics from soil and mouth microbes

LA CROSSE (WKBT) -- A team from Viterbo University embarked on groundbreaking research this summer, aiming to develop new antibiotics to fight bacterial infections.

"We know that there's a problem right now with many microbes becoming resistant to the antibiotics we have," said Luke Bussiere, Assistant Professor at Viterbo University.

Which means there is a need to develop new antibiotics. The question is where to find them.

"A lot of antibiotics that we use in the clinic right now have actually been found from bacteria that grew in the soil," said Bussiere.

Their research found plenty of microbes that produced antibiotics both in soil and the mouth.

The technique begins with growing bacteria in a petri dish and introducing an unknown microbe in the center.

"If there's this little zone around it where the known bacteria can't get very close. It will suggest that the unknown bacteria is producing some type of antibiotic to keep the bacteria away," said Bussiere.

From there, the bacteria are isolated and sequenced. Which is where they currently stand in their research.

"But if it was something novel, a bacteria that people didn't know produced a potential antibiotic that might have something in the future we could look for," said Bussiere.

Bussiere emphasizes that this type of research is critical due to the increasing ability of many bacteria to resist antibiotics.

"If you have a microbe that's resistant to something like penicillin maybe you could treat them with this different antibiotic instead," said Bussiere.

​COPYRIGHT 2024 BY NEWS 8 NOW/NEWS 8000. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.