Tiny Earth: A Big Idea for STEM Education and Antibiotic Discovery

Amanda Hurley; Marc G Chevrette; Deepa D Acharya; Gabriel L Lozano; Manuel Garavito; Jen Heinritz; Luis Balderrama; Mara Beebe; Martel L DenHartog; Kamiyah Corinaldi; Renee Engels; Alyssa Gutierrez; Orli Jona; Josephine H I Putnam; Brody Rhodes; Tiffany Tsang; Simon Hernandez; Carol Bascom-Slack; Jessamina E Blum; Paul A Price; Debra Davis; Joanna Klein; Joshua Pultorak; Nora L Sullivan; Nigel J Mouncey; Pieter C Dorrestein; Sarah Miller; Nichole A Broderick; Jo Handelsman

doi:10.1128/mBio.03432-20

Tiny Earth: A Big Idea for STEM Education and Antibiotic Discovery

mBio. 2021 Feb 16;12(1):e03432-20. doi: 10.1128/mBio.03432-20.

Authors

Amanda Hurley¹, Marc G Chevrette¹, Deepa D Acharya¹, Gabriel L Lozano^{1

2}, Manuel Garavito¹, Jen Heinritz¹, Luis Balderrama^{1

3}, Mara Beebe¹, Martel L DenHartog¹, Kamiyah Corinaldi^{4

5}, Renee Engels¹, Alyssa Gutierrez^{4

6}, Orli Jona¹, Josephine H I Putnam¹, Brody Rhodes^{4

7}, Tiffany Tsang⁸, Simon Hernandez⁹, Carol Bascom-Slack¹⁰, Jessamina E Blum¹¹, Paul A Price¹², Debra Davis¹³, Joanna Klein¹⁴, Joshua Pultorak¹, Nora L Sullivan¹⁵, Nigel J Mouncey¹⁶, Pieter C Dorrestein¹⁷, Sarah Miller⁴, Nichole A Broderick^{18

19}, Jo Handelsman²⁰

Affiliations

¹ Wisconsin Institute for Discovery and Department of Plant Pathology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
² Division of Infectious Diseases and Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Pediatrics, Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
³ Hamline University, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
⁴ Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
⁵ Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.
⁶ University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA.
⁷ University of West Alabama, Livingston, Alabama, USA.
⁸ Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
⁹ University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Medical Education, Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
¹¹ University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
¹² Department of Biology, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, Michigan, USA.
¹³ Department of Biology, Wingate University, Wingate, North Carolina, USA.
¹⁴ Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Northwestern-St. Paul, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA.
¹⁵ Biology Department, Citrus College, Glendora, California, USA.
¹⁶ Joint Genome Institute, Berkeley, California, USA.
¹⁷ Collaborative Mass Spectrometry Innovation Center, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA.
¹⁸ Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Connecticut, Mansfield, Connecticut, USA nbroder1@jhu.edu jo.handelsman@wisc.edu.
¹⁹ Department of Biology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
²⁰ Wisconsin Institute for Discovery and Department of Plant Pathology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA nbroder1@jhu.edu jo.handelsman@wisc.edu.

Abstract

The world faces two seemingly unrelated challenges-a shortfall in the STEM workforce and increasing antibiotic resistance among bacterial pathogens. We address these two challenges with Tiny Earth, an undergraduate research course that excites students about science and creates a pipeline for antibiotic discovery.

Keywords: antimicrobial activity; crowdsourcing; multiomics.

MeSH terms

Anti-Bacterial Agents*
Bacteria / drug effects
Drug Discovery / education*
Drug Discovery / methods
Humans
Science / education*
Students*

Substances

Anti-Bacterial Agents