University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
BIOL 1961
Research Proposal Outline Use this form to plan out the ideas you will present in your proposal. Your lab instructor will give you feedback to help you with your final proposal. Note that we have left the abstract section off of this outline form, as the abstract serves as a brief summary of the rest of the proposal. The Research
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Research Proposal Outline Use this form to plan out the ideas you will present in your proposal. Your lab instructor will give you feedback to help you with your final proposal. Note that we have left the abstract section off of this outline form, as the abstract serves as a brief summary of the rest of the proposal. The Research Proposal Grading Rubric is copied at the end of this form for your convenience (it’s also linked in the proposal assignment instructions on Canvas). Your Name: Teagan Fisher Your research question: Does E.coli become resistant to kanamycin, rifampicin, or Strep at different rates, and What fitness costs do the mutations that allowed the bacteria to become resistant have on the bacteria? Your hypothesis: E. coli strains will exhibit different rates of resistance to the three antibiotics. We also hypothesize that the mutations that confer resistance will have different fitness costs, with some mutations resulting in greater reductions in bacterial growth and survival than others. Research Topic Provide a bullet-point list of the key points of background information that you will provide to the reader. In other words, what does your reader need to know about this topic to understand your project and why it’s relevant and interesting? It is fine to put general topics here if you still need to research something (e.g., “brief summary of current research on ____”). ● Antibiotic resistance is a growing problem worldwide, with bacterial infections becoming increasingly difficult to treat due to the emergence of resistant strains, causing significant morbidity, mortality, and economic burden. ● E. coli is a common gut bacterium that can cause a range of infections, including urinary tract infections, sepsis, and gastroenteritis. ● Multidrug-resistant E. coli strains pose a significant challenge to the treatment of these infections, as these strains are resistant to multiple antibiotics, leaving limited treatment options. ● Understanding the mechanisms underlying bacterial resistance to antibiotics is critical for developing effective treatment options. ● The emergence of antibiotic resistance is driven by a combination of genetic, environmental, and selective factors. ● Resistance mutations often come with a fitness cost, which can reduce the growth and survival of the bacteria carrying the mutation. ● The fitness cost associated with resistance mutations can vary, with some mutations resulting in greater reductions in bacterial growth and survival than others. ● The identification of the mutations responsible for resistance and their associated fitness costs could guide the design of targeted interventions to mitigate the spread of resistan
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