The purpose of the new research proposal titled, "Comparing Antibiotic Effects on the Growth of Serratia marcescens," was to compare the antibiotic resistance between ampicillin and kanamycin in combatting localized infections! #antibioticresistance [1/6]

The research hypothesis held that kanamycin will be more effective than ampicillin at slowing S. marcescens growth! The former is an aminoglycoside and thus is more effective against the gram-negative bacteria that is S. marcescens (Sleigh 1983). [2/6] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1550094/

The disc diffusion method was used to analyze this growth & compare their zones of inhibition, of which kanamycin's was expected to be larger!This method called for 2 sets of 9 agar petri dishes, each with an antibiotic soaked paper disc, & 2 control viability plates. [3/6]

Evidence was found against the research proposal since there was a larger zone of inhibition of ampicillin than kanamycin, seen on the boxplot below. The Shapiro-Wilk Test determined the normality of the data, after which the Rank Sum Test concluded a significant difference![4/6]

The p-value was lower than the alpha value of 0.05, which is why the null hypothesis was rejected and the alternative hypothesis was accepted. Therefore, there is in fact a statistically significant difference between the antibiotics and their effects on S. marcescens! [5/6]

Further research can utilize nutrient plates, rather than agar plates, in an attempt mimic real life conditions & thus produce more accurate results to help doctors combat this era of antibiotic resistance to better treat localized infections! #science[6/6] https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/biggest-threats.html