User:Maurielm/Ruth Ella Moore

Research on Gut Microbiomes[edit]
In 1963 she published research on the sensitivity of gut microorganisms to antibiotics. The 1963 publication studied gut isolated microbes of the Death's Head Cockroach, Blaberus caniifer Burmeister, by isolating pure cultures from the cockroach gut and culturing them on trypticase soy agar. Moore later tested the cultures for antimicrobial susceptibility and antibiotic resistance by placing disks containing antibiotics at various concentrations on the plates (see Disk diffusion test). After incubation, Moore considered the bacteria sensitive to the antibiotic if there was a zone of inhibition present around the disk and as resistant to the antibiotic if there was no zone of inhibition around the disk. Additionally, the study investigated whether antibiotics were bacteriostatic or bactericidal by removing agar from the zones of inhibition and culturing in nutrient broth. If these liquid cultures showed growth, the antibiotic was concluded to be bacteriostatic, and if there was no growth, the antibiotic was concluded to be bactericidal. Her work is considered some of the earliest on microbiomes.