NWTC Students Working to Develop New Antibiotics

Northeast Wisconsin Technical College (NWTC) is teaming up with more than 160 colleges and universities around the world to develop new antibiotics in order to keep new resistance from developing and to prevent the resistance that already exists from spreading. One-hundred twenty Microbiology students at the NWTC are currently looking for new bacteria in soil. Many of the drugs people are prescribed come from dirt, including penicillin.

“This is a great opportunity for students to be engaged in the science community and be their own scientist,” said Angelo Kolokithas, NWTC Microbiology instructor.  

He added, it is up to the students to find a soil sample location and how to experiment or test the sample. The samples must be collected in Wisconsin. At the end of this semester, students will enter their data into an international database at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Fourteen other colleges and universities in Wisconsin area taking part in the research project with most beginning their research in the fall of 2018.