The world is in the midst of another global health crisis, . Field leader and her team are working on prolonging the effectiveness of a class of drugs, including antibiotics, that the World Health Organization calls ‘the backbone of modern medicine’. Dr Pearson’s goal is to identify the key underlying mechanisms of disease caused by multi-drug-resistant bacteria, in the search for alternative treatment options for serious infections.
“We now face a situation where common infections may again become untreatable because of drug resistant bacteria,” Dr Pearson says.
Drug-resistant bacteria and disease
In August, Dr Pearson published a paper in identifying a group of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that are circulating in humans and livestock in Australia, known as monophasic Salmonella.
“The increase in antimicrobial resistance in Salmonella is co-occurring with increased disease severity in humans. As bacteria become more drug resistant and able to avoid current treatments, they can also cause more severe disease,” she says.
“We need to know how drug-resistant bacteria is happening and intervene to avoid a situation where we have no treatment options for life-threatening infections.”
Collaborators | Australian ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ University; Monash University; Royal Melbourne Hospital; The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
Funders | ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)
