Marit Simmons
Beloit College
The oligosaccharides present in breastmilk are known to exhibit both antibiotic and prebiotic activity— they promote the growth of certain bacteria while inhibiting others. For this experiment, culture media was supplemented with breastmilk to investigate its effects on the growth of antibiotic-producing soil bacteria. Bacterial strains with antibacterial activity were successfully cultured on both the supplemented and control media, then sequenced and characterized with BLASTn and antiSMASH software.