Quiz: Antibiotic Resistance and Researchers Studying It

Antibiotics are a class of drugs that treat bacterial infections. They may seem common now, but they were discovered less than a century ago. In 1928, Alexander Fleming, a scientist studying bacteria, found that mold from his bread kept bacteria from growing. He determined that “mold juice” was able to kill different types of harmful bacteria, and he and his assistants worked to figure out what natural product in the mold was actually causing the killing. It turned out to be penicillin! Thanks to Fleming’s discovery, doctors have been successfully treating bacterial infections with penicillin and other newer antibiotics. But in recent years, some infections that were once treatable with antibiotics no longer respond to them. Some of these infections can be treated with multiple rounds of different antibiotic treatments, but others aren’t treatable at all—even leading to death in some cases. Colonies of bacteria growing despite high concentrations of antibiotics. These colonies are visible both by eye, as seen on the left, and by bioluminescence imaging, as seen on the right. Credit: Devin Sindeldecker and Paul Stoodley, Ohio State University. The quiz below will test your knowledge of bacterial infections with examples from some of the scientists we’ve recently featured on the blog who explore new ways to fight these infections. Access the original blog posts at the bottom of the quiz to learn more about each of the researchers and their work. QUIZ...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Being a Scientist Injury and Illness Bacteria Infectious Diseases Quiz Viruses Source Type: blogs