Germ Warfare

Overview

Objectives The goal of my project was to see if exposing consecutive generations of Eschericia Coli (E. Coli) bacteria to antibiotics would affect their level of resistance. Methods Materials: E. Coli strain from a hospital lab, Vitek2 Machine (to check for antibiotic resistance), and various antibiotic discs (Cefazolin, Levofloxacin, Gentamicin, Ciprofloxacin). Methods: In a microbiology laboratory, I used the Vitek2 to test which antibiotics the bacteria were susceptible to. Then I grew them on a plate and measured how close to the antibiotic disc they were able to grow. I repeated this once per day for 7 days. At the end, I repeated antibiotic susceptibility testing. Results From Day 1 to Day 7, the bacteria were able to grow closer to the antibiotic disc in 4 out of 4 of the antibiotics tested. Antibiotic susceptibility testing in the Vitek2 showed on Day 1 the bacteria was susceptible to all antibiotics, and on Day 7 it was resistant to the antibiotics I was using as well as to antibiotics I was not testing for in my experiment. Conclusions The bacteria were able to grow closer to the antibiotic disc meaning they were able to tolerate a higher concentration of antibiotic and survive. The Vitek2 test showed the bacteria were resistant to certain antibiotics. Thus, it is important to use antibiotics in a responsible manner to help avoid resistance.

Competition history

• CSEF 2019 Microbiology (Medical) (Junior Division Only) · Entry J1610

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

• All Microbiology projects
• CSEF Microbiology projects
• Every CSEF 2019 project