ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE: FROM LAB TO CLINIC

Antibiotic resistance is growing as a major public health concern. In the talk, I will present our combined theoretical-experimental-clinical efforts towards understanding, predicting and manipulating the evolution of antibiotic resistance. Novel experimental devices for laboratory evolution of drug resistance now allow us to unravel the genotypic diversity of multi-step adaptive paths to antibiotic resistance. Some of the laboratory concepts can be translated into the much more complex environment of infections within humans, where whole-genome sequencing of clinical isolates can reveal pathogen spread and evolution. Finally, I will present experimental tests of drug combinations and alternating treatments that are more resilient to evolution of antibiotic resistance. My hope is that these experimental and theoretical directions will help lead towards a new paradigm for genome-based diagnostics of microbial infections and guided treatments that are more resilient to evolution of resistance.