Nilesh practices tae kwon do, plays table tennis, and enjoys spelling bees. He'd like to pursue a career as an ophthalmologist because, he says, "vision fascinates me."
With public awareness of antibiotic resistance growing, Nilesh began to look for alternatives and stumbled across phages, viruses that infect bacteria. He hypothesized that a particular phage, T-4, would kill E. coli more selectively and more quickly than antibiotics.
Nilesh grew bacteria from E. coli and L. lactis and added either antibiotics or T-4 phages. The antibiotics erased both types of bacteria, while the T-4 killed only the E. coli. He also timed the speed of both methods, finding that antibiotics and phages eradicated equal amounts of E. coli in 30 minutes. Nilesh believes phages may provide an effective alternative to antibiotics in killing harmful bacteria.
