Video: Fight Antibiotic-Resistant Superbugs—With Viruses

Pictured from left: Brianna Weiss, Lovejit Kaur, Assistant Professor Bryan Gibb, and Linesha Davis.

Fresh off their award-winning research presentation at the Metropolitan Association of College and University Biologists (MACUB) conference, a group of life sciences students in NYIT College of Arts and Sciences, mentored by Assistant Professor Bryan Gibb, Ph.D., led Facebook viewers on a live hunt for the answer to antibiotic resistance—viruses.

Undergraduate biology majors Lovejit Kaur and Brianna Weiss, along with alumna Linesha Davis (B.S. ’18), demonstrated the steps in their ongoing quest for bacteriophages, naturally occurring viruses that attack bacteria. Echoing the message of Gibb’s recent Salon op-ed, the students explained why household kitchen sponges, which often harbor more germs and bacteria than they remove, may hold the secret weapon in the war on superbugs.

“This is a great project for students because [they] can go out and sample any type of environment,” said Gibb. “They bring it back, and we look for bacteriophages and, although it’s not guaranteed, the presumption is that anything they find will be completely novel. A new bacteriophage may or may not harbor any potential as a therapeutic, but that’s what’s exciting. It might harbor potential for therapeutics, and that’s one of the goals of this project and this research.”

Watch the video.