• Question: what made you think of investigating funghi and bacteria as a way to create a new antibiotic?

    Asked by anon-199482 to Sylvia, Kate on 5 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Kate McGonagle

      Kate McGonagle answered on 5 Mar 2019:

      This is defo a question for Sylvia! I know she is looking for new antibiotics in some interesting places! It’s so interesting that the sea might contain the answers!! My work currently is looking for new treatments for neglected and tropical diseases.

    • Photo: Sylvia Soldatou

      Sylvia Soldatou answered on 5 Mar 2019:

      Fungi and bacteria produce molecules for many reasons: they need to fight for space, you can find millions of bacteria and fungi in one gram of sediment. They also need to fight for nutrients and they need to protect themselves from other organisms that are trying to attack them. In order to do all that, they produce molecules and luckily for us some these molecules were found to have antibiotic activity.

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