Research Lab
Insect-Microbiome
Bioprospecting
(Teacher Workshop)
The Insect-Microbiome Antibiotic Bioprospecting training course is designed to train teachers to run a bioprospecting research lab in their high school. Teachers, and later their students, will learn how to discover novel antibiotic candidates.
SOC Research supports teachers/high schools that establish an SOC Insect-Microbiome Antibiotic Bioprospecting Lab in their school with SOC Research certification in this specialty as well as promotional lab equipment pricing, a repository for promising microbial isolate storage, the potential for further microbial isolate testing through SOC research partners, and shared intellectual property management.
teacher/student training manual
(100+ pages of guidance)
Lead Scientist provides background for the day’s research activities
Why focus on Insects?
Historically, bioprospecting efforts have focused on isolating antimicrobials from soil samples with a success rate on the order of 1 in 100,000. This training, however, focusses on learning how to isolate antimicrobial candidates that live symbiotically on and within insects. Research scientists are finding that bioprospecting using insect-derived samples has a much higher likelihood for success - 100 to 1000 times more likely!
Training Workshop:
In this course, teachers will learn how to:
-
isolate bacteria strains (Actinomycetes) from insect samples
-
establish isolate morphologies and other bioassay-determined characteristics
-
co-culture isolates for antimicrobial inhibition against antagonists
-
use polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and electrophoresis to amplify and separate isolated genetic material by gene length
-
analyze 16S rRNA genetic sequence results to establish likely phylogenetic ancestry using MOLE-BLAST and MEGA
-
learn about whole genome sequencing and how antiSMASH identifies biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) that encode novel pathways for secondary metabolites with potential medical applications.