Publication Date
4-25-2022
Document Type
Poster
Awards
Top Award Winner
Faculty Mentor
Dr. Taylor Mach, Dr. Amanda Brosnahan
Abstract
Some commensal bacterial species have the ability to block the growth of harmful pathogens. The focus of this research was to evaluate different commensal nasal swab isolates’ capability to inhibit the colonization of the opportunistic pathogen Staphylococcus aureus. An Interspecies Inhibition assay was conducted to determine the potential growth inhibition of 16 non-S. aureus strains against four characterized S. aureus isolates. After conducting the research, three commensal nasal isolates (0879, 0880, and 0887) all inhibited the growth of S. aureus strain S0037. Additionally, commensal nasal isolate 0887 did not inhibit the growth of S. aureus strain S0028. These results suggest that the commensal isolates exhibiting growth inhibition possess antimicrobial activity that confirm the role of commensal nasal bacteria in limiting the virulence of S. aureus.