1. Engaging Undergraduate Students in Authentic Research
Emily Nowicki, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics

2. Research program : How do soil bacteria survive in their natural
Research program : How do soil bacteria survive in their natural environment?
Environment/Ecology
Medical
Pseudomonas putida
Interaction with soil
microbes
Interaction with plants
Survival in different soil
types
Nazrawit Zeleke
Antibiotic resistance
Tolerance to toxic
compounds
Projects can include analysis of soil microbial communities, and other sequencing and analysis (as budget allows).
Computational
Computational analysis of soil microbial communities
Additional Tn-seq experiments

3. Purpose
The purpose of my experiment was to investigate the change in antibiotic susceptibility of P. putida when grown in different environments.
Hypothesis
The susceptibility of P. putida should change when grown in soil extract media, which closely mimics its natural environment in comparison to P. putida that’s been grown in Mueller-Hinton media.

4. Preparation of Soil Extract
Step 1
Dry and sieve 3 pans of soil
Step 2
Dilute the soil in distilled water and autoclave it
Step 3
Decant liquid and centrifuge for 10 minutes
Step 4
Filter soil through cheese cloth.
Step 5
Filter soil extract through sterile 0.2 micron filter
Step 6
Add additional Nutrients

5. The minimal inhibitory concentration of P
The minimal inhibitory concentration of P. putida in Mueller-Hinton after being treated with four different types of antibiotics and two controls. MH
70% EtOH
Streptomycin
*Tetracycline
*Colistin
Higher [Ab]
Lower [Ab]

6. MIC of antibiotics for P. putida in multiple types of media
MIC (μg/ml)
Antibiotic
Mueller-Hinton
Soil extract with 20mM Casamino acids
Tetracycline
1.50
6.00
Streptomycin
0.04
0.01
Colistin
1.13
4.50
Carbenicillin
6.40
51.2
Two of my current research students are now working on or proposing projects as a direct follow-up to this research.

7. Challenges to doing authentic laboratory-based research with undergraduates:
TIME CONSUMING
Time spent developing project with student
Hours and hours of hands on training and supervision, experiments are time consuming
Takes time to grow and maintain some of our organisms for research
Challenging material
Difficult to comprehend primary literature and experiments
Limited to certain spaces and times
Our research relies on laboratory space and availability- we can’t do this at home or in a coffee shop!
Currently, summer research (other than volunteer) is not possible
Cost
Consumables
Equipment
Project-specific costs

8. Thank you for listening! Any questions?