Student Presenter(s): Usman Niaz
Faculty Mentor: Bryan Gibb
Department: Life Sciences
School/College: College of Arts and Sciences, Long Island
Klebsiella pneumoniae is an infectious bacteria in a genus with growing antibiotic resistance. Klebsiella bacteria can often be found as harmless enterobacteriaceae in the intestines. They can also be found in stool samples. Klebsiella infections often occur in patients that are already sick and receiving treatment for other conditions, such as in hospitals or nursing homes. Symptoms of the infection vary depending on where the infection is. If the lungs are infected, symptoms include fever, cough, chest pain, breathing issues, and bloody mucus. Klebsiella could also infect the blood, brain, heart, skin, or urinary tract. If an infection is suspected, the physician will diagnose from a blood test. If an infection is confirmed the doctor will start with treatment of antibiotics. However, Klebsiella pneumoniae has been showing an increased resistance to carbapenem antibiotics. Carbapenems are an effective class of antibacterials normally reserved for bacteria that are known to be resistant to other antibacterials. Some Klebsiella have been found to produce an enzyme known as carbepenemase, making carbapenem antibiotics ineffective. This places Klebsiella pneumoniae as a carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, CRE, a family of difficult to treat germs due to their resistances to the body's natural defenses as well as most antibacterial medicines. Here, we are attempting to isolate and identify a potential bacteriophage in sewage samples that could infect non-CRE Klebsiella pneumoniae with the eventual goal of finding a bacteriophage that could safely treat CRE Klebsiella pneumoniae infections in humans. A potential phage has been found, and is undergoing isolation to be identified.