(DE)CONSTRUCTING BAD BUGS!

The making of a bad bug! Finally, after 5 days of selection and nursing these little guys along I am seeing a HUGE increase in resistance in my gonococcal cell lines (causal agent of gonorrhea). Though is may seem like a bad idea to evolve bacterial resistance to antibiotics in the lab, we are trying to understand how these bacteria gain resistance mutations. For example, can they gain resistance mutations alone and be totally fine and happy or do they need other mutations that are enabling or compensatory first. Ultimately, this may help us target new pathways for antibiotic development or in discovering bacterial populations that are more likely to evolve resistance to certain drugs than others which may impact prescription practices in certain areas. ​