Life Sciences Commons^™

Clostridium difficile infects and kills 30,000-40,000 people a year in the United States. In order to target and minimize the spread of C. difficile we are screening puupehenone, a natural marine product that is excreted from some species of sponges and coral as a defense mechanism, and repurposing its role for medical use. Our research primarily focuses on determining puupehenone’s antimicrobial properties. This was determined by testing the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of puupehenone as it relates to a single strain of C. difficile, and then observing whether the antimicrobial properties hold across multiple strains of the bacterium. The strain …