Reaching For the Stars: A Study of Bacterial Antibiotic Susceptibility and Response to Media pH Under Simulated Microgravity

Daniela Farchi is a Fourth-Year in the college majoring in Biology. She was awarded a Fall 2019 Conference Grant which she used to attend the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research Conference in Denver, Colorado.

In the summer of 2018 I had the opportunity to participate in an intensive one week space microbiology workshop in Universidad del Valle in Guatemala. A Guatemalan-born researcher, Dr. Luis Zea, who now works at BioServe Space Technologies in Boulder, Colorado was invited to share his passion for microgravitational biological research with other Guatemalans passionate about science. The workshop assembled teams of four composed of High School, Undergraduate, and Graduate students and scientific professionals and gave each team one week to design, carry out, analyze and synthesize an experiment related to space microbiology. The team that I led designed an experiment called “Premature Autolysis of Klebsiella pneumoniae Induced by Simulated Microgravity at Different pH and Carbenicillin Concentrations” that aimed to test the effect of simulated microgravity on K. pneumoniae’s susceptibility to carbenicillin in differing pH media.

I attended the ASGSR conference this November in Denver, Colorado, where I had the privilege to dive deeper into the fascinating field of gravitational and space research. During conference sessions I was exposed to methods of inquiry that I did not imagine possible, expanding my perspective on the possibilities that research allows. I networked with renowned academics who shared their passion for the field with me and invited me to consider it as a potential career path. When presenting, I was asked questions that made me consider the work I did from new angles and interpret it more deeply while considering future directions. Additionally, I was invited to visit the BioServe Space Technologies laboratories where multiple experiments that have been carried out on space exploration missions have been designed and prepared, and a hub for the preparation of the work of a plethora of national laboratories for space travel. I even had the opportunity to sit in the prototype for the vessel that will be used as the Mars lander.

Visit the Undergraduate Research Programs website to learn more about applying for Conference Grants.

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