Image

Resistance in Action

MIT-WHOI Joint Program graduate student Megan May tested temperature and salinity of the water near Little Island in West Falmouth, Mass., recently as part of her research. May is studying natural antibiotic resistance in the marine environment—the levels and types of resistance that occur, as well as how human activity may be affecting it. Bacteria and other organisms sometimes use antibiotic resistance as a defense mechanism in the marine environment. Understanding where and how it occurs could help researchers fight the increase in antibiotic resistance that the CDC has called one of our most serious health threats.(Photo by Ken Kostel, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)