Rewilding &
Medicinal Innovations

Antibiotic resistance is a growing global crisis, yet most modern medicines originate in natural compounds produced by soil microbes, fungi, and plants. As biodiversity declines, we risk losing the biological resources that sustain medical innovation. This project investigates whether rewilded ecosystems—landscapes restored after ecological degradation—harbor microbes with greater antimicrobial potential than degraded soils.

 

Through mentored field sampling and laboratory assays, I will compare microbial diversity and bioactivity between rewilded and degraded sites, testing whether ecosystem restoration can also restore medical discovery capacity. The study aims to provide pilot data reframing rewilding as both ecological and public health infrastructure.