Scientists Tap the Crowd for New Antibiotics
The evolutionary arms race between humans and bacteria has given rise to MRSA, the hospital superbug that is resistant to many types of antibiotics.
As bacteria evolve, their immune systems become impervious to the therapeutics that we throw at them. So scientists develop more powerful drugs, and for a while they work, until the bugs become resistant to these as well.
The ILIAD Project is a citizen science, crowdsourcing initiative that aims to find new antibiotics by asking people to perform their own trials at home using pre-packed kits.
ILIAD was devised and developed by Dr Josiah Zayner, a biophysics expert and NASA Synthetic Biology Fellow, and Mark Opal, a neurobiologist specializing in drug development. They point out there are more than three hundred thousand plant species that contain many chemicals that have never been tested for potential antibacterial properties.
A basic testing kit costs $42 and involves a few steps that can be performed by anyone.
Step one – collect a plant sample.
Step two – test the sample to see if it has antibacterial activity. This involves
grinding the organic material using the kit’s pestle and mortar and then placing it on an agar plate. If bacteria grows around it, the sample is no good. But if a clear ring forms around it this may suggest antibacterial properties.
Step three – document your results on the project’s website.
Any promising material you find is sent away for independent verification.
There is more information about ILIAD and the experimental procedure over on the crowdfunding site Indiegogo and in the video below:
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