The evolution of antibiotic resistance poses a serious global threat to human and animal health. The emergence of multidrug resistant pathogens is often driven by the spread of plasmids that encode genes giving resistance to multiple antibiotics. Bacteria resist beta-lactam antibiotics by the production of beta-lactamase enzymes, coded for by blaCTX-M genes which sit on plasmids. These genes are very prominent in clinically important strains of bacteria as the plasmid is transferred by horizontal gene transfer. However, gaining a plasmid is not always beneficial for the bacterium because plasmids disrupt a wide range of cellular processes to cause large fitness costs. An exciting possibility is that if we understood how these fitness costs are caused we could exploit this weakness to select against resistance plasmids, reducing the burden of antibiotic resistance. Additional Roles:
Treasurer of the Florey Institute, contacting sponsors to support the annual Florey PGR Symposium - October 2019-Present |
The Team
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