Current Projects

Coliform Bacteria in Recreational Areas – Dr. Jerry Kavouras (funded by the Doherty Center)
Recreational activities, such as fishing and boating, where individuals are exposed to untreated water in natural habitats can be potentially dangerous. It is usual for fecal matter to be suspended in the water column of lakes and rivers. Animal feces contain bacteria that can be human pathogens. Therefore, people participating in these activities may unintentionally expose themselves to infectious agents. Water quality is routinely determined by the detection of coliform bacteria. The presence of these organisms indicates that fecal contamination has occurred, which suggests that infectious agents are in the body of water.

The purpose of the study is to sample recreational areas in Cook and Will Counties for the presence of coliform bacteria. The testable hypothesis is people who engage in leisure activities at these sites are consistently exposed to pathogens at dangerous levels throughout the year. Coliforms will be detected in the samples using water quality tests utilized by the Illinois EPA. Bacteria will be identified in positive samples using standard molecular biology techniques in order to determine the species, and possibly bacterial strains, inhabiting these waters.

The Staphylococcus aureus Monitoring Project – Dr. James Rago (funded by the Doherty Center)
Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is quite easily one of the most prevalent bacterial pathogens in the country, both nosocomially, and in the general population. Certain strains of this bacterium have the ability to cause many life-threatening diseases, such as septicemia, food poisoning, many different toxinoses, and many types of serious skin infections. Many of these diseases are commonly referred to as “staph infections” by many in the medical community, and unfortunately, can be quite difficult to treat.

It is also well documented that S. aureus is one of the most rapidly evolving bacterial pathogens when it comes to acquiring resistance to commonly used antibiotics. Studies have shown that there are several clinically relevant strains of S. aureus (such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, and the newly emerging VRSA, which is a variant strain that also has resistance to vancomycin) that are capable of growing in the presence of many commonly-used antibiotics. To an astute student of the biological sciences, it should come as no major surprise that antibiotic misuse (especially in clinical settings) has played a major role in contributing to the emergence of these multi-drug resistant strains of S. aureus.

The overall goal of this project is to acquire strains of S. aureus from various commonly-used environments in the community for the purpose generating a database of the antibiotic resistance profiles (a.k.a. “antibiograms”) and genetic profiles of selected strains using a number of proven techniques. Long term goals of this project are to establish a database of clinically relevant strains of S. aureus in the Lewis University area, and to compare data obtained over several years’ worth of monitoring that may indicate the emergence of new and/or more virulent strains of S. aureus in the community.