The Microscopic Chemical Warfare Of Antibiotics

Research isn't always conducted in a laboratory. Dr. Brian T. Murphy runs a research program that takes him all around the world collecting aquatic microorganisms, en route to the discovery and development of new antibiotics. On this podcast, Dr. Murphy explains how antibiotics work and the importance of discovering new ones, as well as detailing some of the exotic underwater adventures involved in his line of work.

Ongoing projects in Dr. Murphy's lab merge the identification of small molecules with marine microbiology, molecular biology, genomics, and bioinformatics. To date, his lab has built a collection of over 1,500 aquatic bacteria and are using them to generate small molecule libraries that they screen against bacterial pathogens and cancers. The lab is also innovating the way drug discovery libraries are managed to make them more intuitive and efficient.

Antibiotics research crowdsourcing programs:

• Great Lakes Freshwater Sponge Ecology And Drug-Discovery (Murphy Lab project)
• University of Oklahoma's Citizen Science Soil Collection Program
• Drugs from Dirt (US)
• Swab and Send (UK)
• Small World Initiative

Additional scientific resources discussed:

• Murphy Lab UIC website
• Current Murphy Lab projects
• Feature on Murphy Lab in Toronto Star
• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• TB Alliance
• Murphy Lab on Twitter

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Full episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/the-microscopic-chemical-warfare-of-antibiotics

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