West Texas A&M University joins initiative to discover new antibiotics

CANYON, Texas (KVII) — West Texas A&M is taking another big step towards its goal of becoming a regional research university. Next fall, microbiology students will take part in a global effort to find new antibiotics.

“Most science-class laboratories are based on the traditional concepts of curriculum, which is important,” said Dr. Maitreyee Mukherjee, assistant professor of biology at WT. “Adopting the Tiny Earth curriculum will enhance that experience by incorporating research-based laboratory experiences.”

Dr. Mukherjee said harmful bacteria in humans are becoming increasingly resistant to the antibiotics that are designed to kill it.

As a result, infections are becoming harder to treat.

“The World Health Organization, the CDC, pretty much every health organization around the world identifies this as a big issue,” Mukherjee said.

Tiny Earth aims to find a solution to this problem by student-sourcing the discovery of antibiotics.

“In one gram of soil, there are approximately 10 billion microorganisms on average. A lot of them are producing antibiotics in the soil,” Mukherjee said.

Beginning next fall, students in Mukherjee’s microbiology class will dig their own soil samples around the WT campus and the Texas Panhandle.

“They will isolate microorganisms from the soil samples and look at if they are producing any antibiotics or not,” Mukherjee said. “If we find an isolate that is producing an antibiotic that would be the student's discovery right here in our lab.”

Through that research, students will add vital knowledge to Tiny Earth’s database, hopefully leading to the creation of new antibiotic medications.