• Question: what type of antibiotics are you working on?

    Asked by 587drgj36 to Abid, Donna, Sanjib, Thomas, Avril on 9 Jun 2017.
    • Photo: Avril Tucker

      Avril Tucker answered on 9 Jun 2017:


      I don’t personally develop any new antibiotics. What I do is help prescribers (I’m one of those too) to use antibiotics appropriately. Every antibiotic prescribed should be the right drug, to treat the right bacteria, at the right dose, for the right length of time! Lots to remember!!

    • Photo: Thomas Booth

      Thomas Booth answered on 10 Jun 2017:


      Great question!

      I’m working on a two different types of antibiotic compound called: polyketides and non-ribosmal peptides (worth a google!). They are very diverse and can kill fungus, bacteria and even cancer cells!

    • Photo: Donna Johnson

      Donna Johnson answered on 10 Jun 2017:


      I work mostly with an antimicrobial called triclosan (antimicrobials act more generally against microorganisms than antibiotics which kill or stop the growth of bacteria). It’s been used in a lot of cleaning products and until quite recently it was found in products like toothpaste and antibacterial soap but it was banned by the FDA (food and drug administration) in the US because it is associated with development of resistance to antibiotics at the same time as the bacteria become resistant to triclosan. I use it to try and look at ways that bacteria become resistant to antimicrobials and to try and find the pathways that lead to antibiotic resistance at the same time, hopefully we can find out pathways that may be important for other antimicrobial agents and find some important pathways to use as targets for the development of new antimicrobials and antibiotics.

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