British Science Week: Could Our Year 6 Pupils Help Discover the Next Antibiotic?
Laxton Junior School Takes Part in the National Swab and Send Programme
As part of British Science Week, our Year 6 pupils at Laxton Junior School had the extraordinary opportunity to contribute to real, impactful scientific research through the
Swab and Send project, led by Professor Roberts and the team at the
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM). This isn’t a classroom simulation. Swab and Send exists for one powerful purpose: to help scientists discover the next generation of antibiotics, before the medicines we rely on stop working.
Antibiotic resistance is a growing global health emergency. When antibiotics fail, common infections become dangerous; routine surgery becomes high-risk; and illnesses we take for granted could once again become life-threatening. The search for new antimicrobial compounds is urgent and surprisingly, promising candidates can sometimes be found in the most everyday places.
Our Year 6 pupils have played a small but meaningful part in that search.
What Did Year 6 Do?
Pupils collected swab samples from locations across school, everything from door handles, lockers and sports equipment to soil, moss, plants and musical instruments. These were sent to LSTM, where scientists:
- cultivated the microbes on agar plates
- selected unusual or interesting colonies
- preserved them in 96 well plates at –80°C
- screened them against five indicator species
LSTM looked for “zones of inhibition”: clear areas where a microbe successfully killed or stopped the growth of harmful bacteria and fungi. These zones indicate microbes that may be producing antimicrobial compounds. Exactly the type of compounds the world urgently needs.
The Results: Our Pupils Made Real Scientific Discoveries
Across all samples, LSTM isolated over 300 microbial colonies, with 35 showing antimicrobial activity. These “hit isolates” are now being stored for deeper analysis as part of the ongoing national research effort.
October 2026