Virginia Via Research Day Book 2026

Medical Student Research Biomedical

19 DRAGON’S BLOOD: GROWTH MODULATION OF STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS UNDER VARIABLE NUTRITIONAL CONDITIONS AND IN THE PRESENCE OF A NATURALLY OCCURRING RESIN

Jackie Kronen, MA, OMS-II; Jonas Lane, BS, OMS-II; Sean Dalton, BS, OMS-II; James Mahaney, PhD; Teresa R. Johnson, MS, PhD Corresponding author: jkronen@vcom.edu

VCOM-Virginia, Blacksburg, Virginia

Dragon’s Blood is a naturally occurring resin derived from a variety of native trees in Asia, Africa, and South America. The sap used in this assay is derived from the South American Croton tree genus. Historically used for its hemostatic and wound-healing properties, the resin has also been reported to exhibit bacteriostatic activity. This study aims to evaluate the effect of Dragon’s Blood on Staphylococcus aureus, a major cause of nosocomial infections, and to determine how nutrient availability influences this interaction. Staphylococcus aureus is a ubiquitous human commensal and a clinically significant pathogen. Its biochemical profile is characterized as coagulase positive, β-hemolytic, and is a facultative aerobe/ anaerobe. Its ability as a facultative pathogen to

upregulate distinct metabolic and stress response pathways under nutrient limitation has highlighted novel biosynthetic targets with potential antimicrobial relevance. Prior work has shown that nutrient-deprived S. aureus activates unique biosynthetic pathways that are not present during nutrient-rich growth (Krismer et al., 2014), demonstrating the importance of studying pathogens across varied nutritional states. We propose to assess S. aureus growth in the presence of Dragon’s Blood across nutrient-rich and nutrient limited media using standardized growth inhibition assays. Demonstrating differential growth effects under these conditions could inform future antimicrobial development strategies that exploit nutrient-responsive adaptations in facultative pathogens. We hypothesize

that Dragon’s Blood will modulate S. aureus growth in a nutrient-dependent manner, providing insights relevant to therapeutic approaches targeting stress adaptation pathways in organisms responsible for substantial nosocomial morbidity and mortality.

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108 Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM)