Description:

Title: Inhibiting the Evolution of Antimicrobial Resistance

Speaker:  Houra Merrikh, PhD, Professor of Biochemistry, Microbiology, Pathology and Immunology, Vanderbilt University

Topic:

Antimicrobial resistance rapidly develops against almost all available therapeutics. New antibiotics target essential processes in bacteria but fail to address the root of the problem: mutagenesis and evolution. We recently proposed that inhibiting the molecular mechanisms underlying bacterial evolution is the ultimate solution to preventing drug resistance development. In my seminar, I will discuss our progress on this topic and introduce the first anti-evolution drug that directly targets a critical bacterial mutagenesis mechanism that drives antibiotic resistance development.

Host:  Dept of Microbiogy-Immunolgy Bacteriology Postdoctoral Trainees and Graduate Students (coordinating host, Wendy Geslewitz)