A Systems Approach to Combating Antibiotic Resistance in Gram-Negative Pathogens

Although drug-resistant bacteria are one of the most critical problems facing the medical community today, huge gaps remain in our knowledge of how cells resist drugs. In our work to understand how gram-negative pathogens respond to and resist treatment with antibiotics, we quickly realized the importance of the patient to antibiotic treatment outcome and known antibiotic resistance mechanisms cannot explain resistance found in bacteria isolated from patients. Ultimately, our results may be used to design better chemotherapeutics to help prevent the worldwide problem of drug resistance.

Current Lab Member Working in This Area of Research

- Zack Conley

Collaborators

- Cesar Arias, M.D., UTHealth, Associate Professor
- Robert Atmar, M.D., Baylor College of Medicine, Professor and Interim Chief
- Patrick Barth, Ph.D., Baylor College of Medicine, Assistant Professor
- Maria Luisa Daroy, M.S., St. Luke’s Medical Center, Quezon City, Philippines, Assistant Professor
- Gretchen Diehl, Ph.D., Baylor College of Medicine, Assistant Professor
- Richard J. Hamill, M.D., Baylor College of Medicine, Professor
- James R. Johnson, M.D., University of Minnesota Medical School, Professor of Medicine
- Sukyeong Lee, Ph.D., Baylor College of Medicine, Associate Professor
- Anthony Maresso, Ph.D., Baylor College of Medicine, Associate Professor
- Oon Tek Ng, Ph.D., Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Consultant
- B.E. Pradeep, Ph.D., Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Assistant Professor
- Nagireddy Putluri, Ph.D., Baylor College of Medicine, Assistant Professor
- Buck S. Samuel, Ph.D., Baylor College of Medicine, Assistant Professor
- Arun Sreekumar, Ph.D., Baylor College of Medicine, Associate Professor
- Richard Sucgang, Ph.D., Baylor College of Medicine, Assistant Professor
- Yongcheng Song, Ph.D., Baylor College of Medicine, Associate Professor
- Vincent H. Tam, Ph.D., University of Houston, Associate Professor

Funding

  • 1998-2002 Burroughs Wellcome Fund New Investigator Award
  • 1998-1999 Curtis Hankamer Research Award
  • 2001-2005 National Science Foundation (MCB 0090880)
  • 2003-2006 Houston Area Molecular Biophysics Program (T32 GM08280)
  • 2004-2006 Burroughs Wellcome Fund Research Grant (1005267)
  • 2004-2010 Pharmacoinformatics Training Program (NIH T90 DK070109)
  • 2004-2013 National Institutes of Health (RO1 AI054830)
  • 2009 Applied Biosystems SOLID™3 System $10K Genome Award
  • 2014-2015 National Institutes of Health (R56 AI 054830)
  • 2015-2019 National Institutes of Health (RO1 GM115501)