Fatima Luna

Title of Work: 

Screening for Substances that Inhibit Oral Bacterial Biofilms

Abstract:

In this study, we investigated the potential of Antarctic-originated bacteria to inhibit Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a pathogen known for causing infections in immunocompromised individuals. The bacterial strain under examination was generously provided by students from Shimane University and originates from snowbird nests in Antarctica.

The samples, originating from these nests, were introduced to cultured Pseudomonas strains to explore whether they possess the capability to inhibit this bacterium in the oral cavity. Traditionally, disinfectants and antibiotics have been used to combat Pseudomonas infections, but this bacterium has exhibited growing resistance to these treatments. Therefore, our research focuses on alternative methods, particularly the inhibition of Pseudomonas biofilm formation, as an alternative strategy

Title of Work (IGP Language):  

口腔細菌バイオフィルムの阻害物質のスクリーニング

Abstract (IGP Language):

まず始めに、南極細菌研究のイントロです。

Pseudomonasは、免疫力の落ちた人に日和見感染し、部位によって様々な症状を引き起こします。

この細菌は島根大学の学生に作ってもらいました。

南極のユキドリの巣でサンプルをとり、取れたサンブルを培養したPseudomonasに添加して、阻害するかどうかしらべました。

この菌に対する基本的な対処法は、消毒や特効薬を投与することですが、この菌にはかなり強い耐性があります。したがって、それらの因子であるバイオフィルムを抑制する方法が求められています。

Elevator Pitch Video

Elevator Pitch Transcript: 

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Fatima Luna: Hello, everyone! My name is Fatima Luna, and I'm here to do my elevator speech for the IGP summit of 2023.

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Fatima Luna: So just a little bit about me. I study Japanese. I'm a biomedical science major and comparative cultural studies with Asian emphasis.

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Fatima Luna: My year abroad I was actually able to do a new partnership that IGP has with Yamaguchi daigaku for Yamauchi University in Yamauchi, Japan.

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Fatima Luna: And that was really exciting, because since it's a rural place you really have to.

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Fatima Luna: Know, your Japanese, essentially, in order to survive. So it was a really great experience and Yamaguchi doesn’t actually have a global-um my mistake, a biomedical degree.

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Fatima Luna: So as exchange students were usually placed in the global science studies department.

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Fatima Luna: And there, we mostly really just focus on Japanese culture and language.

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Fatima Luna: So yeah, so I was really excited to partake in this new partnership, because, as I mentioned before, Yamaguchi is very rural. So you really have to know your Japanese in order to get by.

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Fatima Luna: So, even though it was really challenging, I feel I was really able to grow in this aspect.

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Fatima Luna: because my main goal to going abroad was to really interact with the native people interacting and immerse myself in the culture and really be able to enhance my Japanese language skills, being speaking, listening, writing and reading.

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Fatima Luna: And so with my internship, I was a part of Dr. Azakami's molecular microbiology laboratory. And we did the Screening of Substances that Inhibit Oral Bacterial Biofilms. So we worked with, Pseudamonas aeruginosa which is an opportunist pathogen.

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Fatima Luna: And really, what its main concern is that it's grown resistant to current antibiotics.

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Fatima Luna: And so this bacterium actually impacts immunocompromised people and if it gets very severe can lead to death. 

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Fatima Luna: So we were given these samples from Shimane, Daigaku, or Shimane University.

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Fatima Luna: and it’s of the snow petrels feces essentially, and it's been cultivated and filtered, and we put it into a micro

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Fatima Luna: titer plates where we screen it. And so my experience

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Fatima Luna: abroad with this laboratory. It was my first, ever laboratory, so it was definitely different from

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Fatima Luna: kind of being coddled here to NAU, and there is a vast language barrier, like. Of course, they speak Japanese, but

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Fatima Luna: my Japanese isn't so great. So I did have some difficulties, but luckily they're very kind to me, and very helpful. And I really love that Dr. Alakami.

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Fatima Luna: focus is with pathogen prevention. So it was really interesting to see that infectious side of things. Thank you so much for your time, and I hope to see you at the summit.

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