Drugs from Dirt Season

2017-2018

Donate Your Soil

About Drugs from Dirt

Soil Collection
Soil Collection

Soil samples are collected along with data related to the soil and its location.

DNA Isolation
DNA Isolation

Once the soil samples are received, our laboratory extracts the DNA present in the collected samples.

PCR Amplification
PCR Amplification

With degenerate primers, we use targeted PCR to amplify conserved biosynthetic domains from this DNA.

DNA Sequencing
DNA Sequencing

The generated amplicons from the PCR amplification are then sequenced.

Data Analysis
Data Analysis

The sequenced reads are analyzed through our custom pipeline against our carefully curated database.

Data display
Data display

Finally, the data is released on the Drugs From Dirt website, identified molecules at the collection sites can be visualized.

1000000000+
clones recovered

and growing

Latest news

Malacidins: a new class of antibiotics isolated from dirt

Bradley Hover of the Brady lab, recently reported in a Nature Microbiology article the discovery of a new class of calcium-dependent antibiotics isolated from soil samples. This new class, malacidins is reported to display activity against multidr... continue reading

Wired magazine article

The Brady lab as well as drugsfromdirt are being featured in this January 2018 Wired magazine edition. You can read all about it here. Have a look! The DFD Team continue reading