Soils



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To view your soil sample visit: our wiki page

So far we have soil samples coming from - Local Norwich Schools, iGEM Braunschweig, iGEM Kent, iGEM Manchester, iGEM Newcastle, Centre for Fisheries Aquaculture & Science (CEFAS), UEA ENV,  

Helpful microbes in the soil

If you’ve ever dug up a hole in your garden you might have noticed that the soil has a very distinctive ‘earthy’ smell. This smell is actually produced by millions of microorganisms that naturally live in the soil. That might sound a bit disgusting, but actually most of them are harmless and have extremely important in helping humans to fight against serious disease.

Scientists found that bacteria and fungi which live in the soil are capable of defending themselves against other organisms. Scientists are able to take these molecules that are used for defence, and develop them into antibiotics to fight diseases. You might have had some of the antibiotics yourself if you have had an infection.

The only problem is that over time, the harmful bacteria that cause serious disease get used to the antibiotics and develop what we term ‘resistance’.

This is a major problem in current healthcare - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21737844

This means that scientists need to keep finding new types of antibiotics from other microbes so that humans can keep finding new ways to protect themselves.

Anyone can help!

Our team of scientists at the university need your help in gathering soil samples from many different locations so that we might find new types of helpful bacteria and fungi, which produce antibiotics.

There are more than 500 types of a special kind of helpful bacteria called ‘Streptomyces’, which can be found in soils from all around the world, including Norfolk! We would like your help in collecting soil samples which we can then use in the laboratory.

Heres how to do it.

1. Dig down about 3 cm below the surface soil level.

2. Collect a small handful of the soil into a sealable plastic container.

3. Label the container with the location it was collected from.

4. Make sure you wash you r hands afterwards!

5.. Send the container to:

Matt Hutchings Lab

School of Biological Sciences

University of East Anglia

Norwich Research Park

Norwich

NR4 7TJ