?? ? Antibiotic Resistance: when strains of bacteria change to resist antibiotics that previously were effective in treating them.
GMGI Researchers on the Microbial Discovery team – Kevin Penn, Ph.D., Zach Dench, and Sam Major – have partnered with Mass General Brigham/Harvard Medical School’s Michael Gilmore, Ph.D. to tackle this growing issue, trying to understand the spread and evolution of antibiotic resistance.
In his research at Harvard, Dr. Gilmore has focused on ????????????????????????, a specific type of bacteria that can cause UTIs, meningitis, intra-abdominal, bloodstream and wound infections – infections that are difficult to treat because of antibiotic resistance. Harmless types of these bacteria also occur in the healthy microbiome in the guts of humans and animals. Recently, GMGI’s genomic techniques and incredible access to local waters have provided Dr. Gilmore with the unique opportunity to understand where ???????????????????????? bacteria naturally occur, including their existence in marine animals.
Collecting crabs, as seen above, is just the first step. GMGI researchers will check for ???????????????????????? in these animals, and if found, they will dive into culturing and genome sequencing. Their aim? To analyze any antibiotic resistance genes discovered. If successful, this work could lead to a grant proposal to further explore these important issues.
