SCF student discovers Pink, a bacteria/antibiotic organism around Leffis Key
They call it “Pink.”
Named for its color when cultured in a petri dish, Pink is a never-before discovered single-cell organism that a State College of Florida Manatee-Sarasota student found in the mangroves around Leffis Key on Anna Maria Island.
….Morgan, who has since transferred to New College, is continuing to work on Pink to see what its future as an antibiotic could be.Her work will be closely noted as scientists struggle to find antibiotics to combat resistant staph bacteria like Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, also known as MRSA.
At New College, Morgan has worked to isolate and identify the pigment molecules produced by Pink. She determined the structure of the pigment molecule and also found the specific DNA sequence the bacteria uses to make this molecule in each cell.