• Question: Have you discovered any new bacteria lately

    Asked by r2d2 to Chloe on 13 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Chloe Huseyin

      Chloe Huseyin answered on 13 Nov 2015:

      Not yet 🙁 one of the problems with looking for new bacteria is that a lot of bacteria are quite fussy about the nutrients they need to grow in a lab.

      I only work with samples from humans so a lot of the bacteria and other things that live in our digestive system have already been found by growing them on different types of culture media. This is why scientists like me are now studying the DNA of all the different micro-organisms instead as it means we don’t have to try and grow them in the lab as much. Hopefully by looking at the DNA sequences I might find something new in the future 🙂

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