Sean O’Brien, Staff Writer
Lewis student and biology major, Peter Waller, spent spring break at Arizona State University’s (ASU) west campus, expanding his knowledge and helping form collaboration between Lewis and ASU.
The MALDI-TOF technique that Waller was learning about allows for bacteria to be strain-typed so that the many different bacteria can be categorized.
“I was looking to see if we could actually use this technique for our research here[…] If we can send our samples collected from the research project out there to Arizona and then have them strain-type those samples and send back information to us,” said Waller.
Waller is part of an undergraduate research class collecting samples from ambulances in the Chicagoland area with MRSA being the particular focus of Waller’s research. Waller chose MRSA as his focus in part due to the threat it poses as a bacteria that can be resistant to many types of antibiotics.
“MRSA is a strain of staphylococcus aureus bacteria that is resistant to methicillin, which is a type of anti-biotic and is capable of causing many different types of infections. That resistance makes it harder for the infections to be treated. It’s not just methicillin that it is resistant to either; with different strains being more resistant to certain anti-biotics than others,” said Waller.
The trip and collaboration with ASU was set up by biology Assistant Professor, Dr. James Rago, who is also the head of the undergraduate research class Waller is a part of. Rago first established the connection back in October at a conference in Williamsburg where he met Dr. Todd Sandrin from ASU, who spoke to him about his use of MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry.
“[Dr. Sandrin] talked about using that technique to identify different strains of bacteria and I thought that would make a nice collaboration as we [at Lewis] don’t have the facilities here to do that sort of thing. So, I called him up and asked if we could send one of our students down to show him how this technique works. The provost and the dean were both very supportive and put up some money so he (Waller) could go down there and learn the technique,” said Rago.
Dr. Rago plans to send the samples collected from the ambulance study down to ASU to be tested and then interpret the results that are sent back. Hopes are also that this will be the first of several visits and for a continuance in this collaboration between the two universities.
Sean O Brien
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