Pathogen Images

Photo by Suphan Bakkal and Sara Cody

This photo shows the power of bacteriocin-mediated microbial warfare. The agar plate has a lawn of bacteria growing (orange-yellow haze). The three filter papers shown gentamycin (right), a bacterial produced toxin known as bacteriocin (left) and the combination of the two (middle). The traditional antibiotic and the bacteriocin show similar killing rates. The combination shows a greater impact.

The Riley lab investigates how these toxins evolve, what role they play in the ecology of the microbial world and how we can employ them in our fight against pathogens.