Green Bay, Wis.—Here’s the hard-hitting fact: 700,000 people around the world die each year from drug-resistant diseases with common diseases becoming untreatable. Left unchanged, drug-resistant diseases could kill 10 million people by the year by 2050. It’s a world crisis.

“Tiny Earth” is an initiative that uses a global network of college students (now in 15 countries and almost every state in the U.S.) to identify new life-saving antibiotics produced by bacteria in soil environments. This year, UW-Green Bay students will be studying a soil sample from the Green Bay Packers’ practice field.

A representative from the Packers will join faculty and students for a Tiny Earth kick-off at UW-Green Bay’s Stem Innovation Center at 12:45 p.m. Monday, Sept. 9, 2019. Media is invited.

The second annual Tiny Earth in Titletown Symposium will follow at the Lambeau Field Atrium on Dec. 6, 2019. Medical College of Wisconsin-Green Bay, Nature’s Way, Schreiber Foods, Cherney Labs and other business and organizations, including the Green Bay Packers, are supporting the event. The 2019 research campaign has added students, teachers and administrators from area high schools (West High School, East High School, Ashwaubenon, Bay Port High School, etc.) and the symposium is expected to draw even more than the 250 participants who attended last year.

“A soil sample from the Packers’ practice field is incredibly exciting to our Wisconsin Tiny Earth students,” said UW-Green Bay Biology Prof. Brian Merkel, one of the organizers of the event. “The partnership is a testament to the good that happens when partnerships, including high schools, colleges, business and industry, including the Packers, come together for the common good.”

The UW-Green Bay student researchers will analyze the soil bacteria during the fall semester and present their findings at the Tiny Earth in Titletown Symposium.

This video features last year’s event.

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