Major: Biology
Presidential Scholars Advisor: Dr. Christopher Kelson
Research Project Advisor: Dr. Jan Trybula
Determining if antibiotic resistance to Staphylococcus aureus is the same among fourth year students despite their geographic differences
Staphylococcus aureus is a skin bacteria that everyone has. When these bacteria are exposed to an open wound, it can cause a major infection known as Staph infection when the wound is not treated properly. This type of infection is the leading infection that sometimes occurs after surgery. With the epidemic of antimicrobial resistance (antibiotic resistance), Staphylococcus aureus has become resistant with one of medicine's most famous drug, penicillin. Asking fourth year college students here at SUNY Potsdam to collect samples from, by swabbing their mouth, nose and palm, I expect to find that each fourth year student will share the same resistance to one another. From there I will eventually determine if the similarity in resistance between the fourth year students is based off of environmental factors. By growing up those samples and using them in various tests that confirm the presence of Staph aureus as well as the kill zone to determine the resistant level of the penicillin, I will come to my hypothesis that each fourth year student will be identical.