Multidrug resistant bacterial infections are one of the top three threats to global public health. Nearly all clinical antibiotics have lost their effectiveness due to the rapid onset of bacterial resistance. Unfortunately, there is not a robust and efficient method that allows researchers to study bioactive antibiotic compounds that come from novel secondary metabolites produced by bacteria and other microorganisms. This research will develop a high throughput liquid culture method, which can screen both single and multi-culture mixtures of bacteria for antibiotic product. This method is a quick five-day process, compared to the current agar overlay method, which takes about two weeks. This new method includes four basic steps: growing bacteria overnight, developing a liquid well assay which shakes for 48 hours, filtering the bacteria’s excreted secondary metabolites to a new well assay plate which shakes for 24 hours, and then finally testing for antibiotic activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogens.
