Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I'm planning on doing a project that involves growing bacteria and measuring how many bacteria out of that sample have developed resistance to certain antibiotics. However, I was wondering where you can find antibiotics to test this out and the experimental process. Could you help me?

Hello!

This sounds like a really cool project! We'd be happy to help you plan it out. First off, what question are you trying to test with this project and what is your hypothesis?

You can get antibiotics from Carolina Biological. They come in disk form like this: https://www.carolina.com/microbiology-s ... antibiotic

You would grow your bacteria on a plate first and then put the disks on top of the bacteria in the plate to expose them to the antibiotics. If the bacteria are sensitive to the antibiotic, a clear ring will form around the disk. This is called the 'zone of inhibition.' This is the area where the bacteria can't grow due to the antibiotic. The zone of inhibition will either be smaller or not show up at all if the bacteria are resistant to the antibiotic. This technique is called the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method. You can read about the full procedure here: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... resistance

I hope this is enough to get you started! Please feel free to ask any questions you have throughout the process.