The Pepsi Refresh Project, coining the slogan “refresh everything,” has funded projects across the country with the goal of helping people create a positive impact in their communities and in the world. The ideas, which can be submitted by businesses, organizations or individuals, range in scope from providing veterinary care for unwanted pets to fighting against human trafficking. This month, UNCW’s very own Marine Biotechnology in North Carolina program (MARBIONC) has submitted a grant proposal to the Refresh Project for $50,000 to develop antibiotics targeting drug resistant strains of bacteria called “superbugs.”

Here is the catch. The public decides by voting which ideas get funded.

“It’s like dancing with the stars, only it’s dancing with the scientists,” said Dr. Jeffrey Wright, professor of chemistry and biochemistry and principal and research director of MARBIONC. “It’s a matter of getting the votes in.” Pepsi accepts 1,000 ideas a month, and individuals can vote for up to 10 of their favorite ideas every day online or by text.

About half of the pharmaceuticals we use today are or are inspired by natural products, said Wright. Wright named drugs such as Penicillin, which comes from a fungus, and Taxol, used for cancer patients, which comes from a yew tree. However, scientists have combed through plant-based and soil-based organisms thoroughly and are finding it increasingly difficult to find anything new. The solution is to look to our oceans to find new organisms with new and improved biological activity, said Wright.

Marine organisms are in constant competition for access to light, nutrition and space to grow, which makes them ideal potential sources of antibiotics, said Wendy Strangman, associate research professor with MARBIONC in a press release. The microbes can produce chemicals to kill off their competitors, and these chemicals often make excellent antibiotics. In addition to purchasing supplies and equipment and paying the laboratory technicians’ salaries, MARBIONC would use the money to organize a trip to a research station in Belize to collect specimens.

“We can take a teaspoonful or less of marine sediment or a tiny piece of a sponge, and on that sponge or sediment there will be hundreds if not thousands of bacteria,” said Wright. Chemists can then isolate any compounds of interest and grow them in a laboratory.

Superbugs, like MRSA, NDM-1 and KPC, kill tens of thousands of people a year. “We constantly have to look for new structures with new biologic activities,” said Wright. Organizations like MARBIONC look for leads and then collaborate with pharmaceutical companies that design and manufacture the actual drugs.

The team at MARBIONC encourages community members to vote for the idea at www.refresheverything.com/newantibiotics or by texting 105313 to Pepsi (73774) every day in January.