Details

Dance performance illustrating antibiotic resistance and the hope of getting new Super Antibiotics from soil bacteria. Performed at the 3rd Annual Science Communication Student Conference in Leiden NL on 19 January 2012.

From the program:

Antibiotic resistance is a serious problem being regularly discussed in the media these days. Current antibiotics do not work against all bacteria anymore… But there’s hope! Team Leiden under PI prof. Gilles van Wezel is trying to find new Super Antibiotics in soil bacteria. High school students are going to help the team with this search. Team Leiden won the Academic Year Prize 2011 with this idea.

Scene 1: Battle bacteria vs antibiotic.
Antibiotic (white) is able to defeat non-resistant bacteria (yellow) but not resistant bacteria (red).
Scene 2: Resistant bacteria celebrate. They cannot be defeated.
Scene 3: Bacteria transforms into resistant bacteria. Resistant bacteria transform a bacteria by giving it a different piece of DNA.
Scene 4: The solution: Super Antibiotic! The scientists activates soil bacteria (green). These will create the super antibiotic.
Scene 5: Super Antibiotic is the new winner! The super antibiotic is able to defeat the resistant bacteria.

This project was led by Sylvie Hofman & Robin Kleian as part of their master’s specialization Science Communication & Society. Choreography SH, RK, Michelle van Toor (Stichting Acception). Dancers: SH, RK, Sanne Vleeming, Xiamyra Daal, Anne-Roos Vermeulen, Daphne Hofman. Scientist: Richard Funnekotter. Thanks to Prof. Jos van den Broek (U Leiden), MvT, RF, Marc Borger (music), Sharina Chandler (clothing).