Undisturbed vs. Disturbed: Soil Microbial Diversity

Class: BIOL 0940G – Antibiotic Drug Discovery: Identifying Novel Soil Microbes to Combat Antibiotic Resistance

Instructor(s): Dr. Toni-Marie Achilli

Student(s): Kriti Devkota, Lisa Nguyen, Alex Troullioud

“I felt that this CURE class was a very enriching experience, and I am very glad I chose to take this class.”

Kriti Devkota

“We were interested in studying the connection between diversity and antibody producing capabilities.”

Lexi Schecter

Description:

Our group studied soil microbial diversity from two different sites, one represented by Pembroke Garden and one from a construction site on campus. Our goal was to discover if there was a connection between the amount of soil disturbance and the amount of biodiversity. Though our lab research was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, we were able to further investigate our hypothesis using primary literature.