Meet The Microbiologist - The Scientists Behind The Microbiology

While searching for lignin-degrading soil microbes, Gautam Dantas discovered growth in an antimicrobial compound-containing control! He has since studied the resistance determinants (resistome) of soil and clinical samples to determine their similarities. Julie’s Biggest Takeaways: Sequencing information is extremely useful for descriptive studies, but there’s an increasing trend in microbiome studies to use the sequencing data as a basis for forming hypotheses. These hypotheses can then be tested by some variation of classical techniques, be in biochemical, culturing, animal models, etc. Surveying who is there helps scientists make testable predictions. Gautam’s resistome research is built on the research of many, but especially inspired by: Gerry Wright, who proposed the presence of a resistome. The resistome is a collection of genetic determinants in a microbial group that allows phenotypic resistance against antimicrobial compounds. Julian Davies, who proposed the producer hypothesis. The producer hypot