Debby Sunday / Chemistry & Biochemistry / Faculty Mentor: Sherri McFarland
Antibiotic resistance is a growing global crisis, making once-easily treated infections harder to fight and pushing the need for new treatments. The emergence of antimicrobial-resistant strains make infections harder to treat, leading to longer illnesses and increased deaths worldwide. Photodynamic inactivation (PDI) of bacteria provides an alternate solution that focuses on killing bacterial cells through irradiation of a photosensitizer, producing an immediate burst of reactive molecular species that are cytotoxic to the pathogens. This presentation is focused on exploring light-triggered antimicrobial activities of natural product extracts. Qualitative and quantitative studies were employed to probe the effectiveness of natural compounds in inhibiting bacterial growth by up to 90% with the use of techniques such as agar diffusion and microbroth dilution. Future studies will be focused on identifying the most effective extracts and examining their photobiological activities against different bacterial strains, including gram-negative and highly resistant species.
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