Warren symposium follows legacy of geneticist giant

If we want to understand how the brain creates memories, and how genetic disorders distort the brain’s machinery, then the fragile X gene is an ideal place to start. That’s why the Stephen T. Warren Memorial Symposium, taking place November 28-29 at Emory, will be a significant event for those interested in neuroscience and genetics. Stephen T. Warren, 1953-2021 Warren, the founding chair of Emory’s Department of Human Genetics, led an international team that discovered Read more

Mutations in V-ATPase proton pump implicated in epilepsy syndrome

Why and how disrupting V-ATPase function leads to epilepsy, researchers are just starting to figure Read more

Tracing the start of COVID-19 in GA

At a time when COVID-19 appears to be receding in much of Georgia, it’s worth revisiting the start of the pandemic in early 2020. Emory virologist Anne Piantadosi and colleagues have a paper in Viral Evolution on the earliest SARS-CoV-2 genetic sequences detected in Georgia. Analyzing relationships between those virus sequences and samples from other states and countries can give us an idea about where the first COVID-19 infections in Georgia came from. We can draw Read more
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colistin

Triple play in science communication

Emory BCDB graduate student Emma D’Agostino

We are highlighting Emory BCDB graduate student Emma D’Agostino, who is a rare triple play in the realm of science communication.

Emma has her own blog, where she talks about what it’s like to have cystic fibrosis. Recent posts have discussed the science of the disease and how she makes complicated treatment decisions together with her doctors. She’s an advisor to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation on patient safety, communicating research and including the CF community in the research process. She’s also working in biochemist Eric Ortlund’s lab on nuclear receptors in the liver:drug targets for the treatment of diabetes and intestinal diseases.

The triple play is this — on her blog, Emma has discussed how she has to deal with antibiotic resistance. Emory Antibiotic Resistance Center director David Weiss’ lab has published a lot on colistin: how it’s a last-resort drug because of side effects, and how difficult-to-detect resistance to it is spreading. Emma has some personal experience with colistin that for me, brought the issue closer. Read more

Posted on July 20, 2020 by Quinn Eastman in Uncategorized Leave a comment

Focus on antibiotic resistance at ASM Microbe 2018

We are excited that the ASM Microbe meeting will be at the Georgia World Congress Center from June 7 to June 11. If you are interested in antibiotic resistance, you can learn about how to detect it, how to (possibly) defeat it and how the bacteria fight back.

A host of Emory microbiologists are participating. In some cases, our scientists are presenting their unpublished data for discussion with their colleagues at other universities. Accordingly, we are not going to spill the beans on those results. However, please find below some examples of who’s talking and a bit of explanatory background. ASM Microbe abstracts are available online for posters, but not for some symposiums and plenary talks.

David Weiss lab — Klebsiella

Graduate student Jessie Wozniak is presenting her research on an isolate of Klebsiella that combines alarming properties. She will describe how the bacterial colonies behave (unappetizingly) like stretchy melted cheese in a “string test.”

June 9, 11 am to 1 pm, June 11, 11 am to 1 pm

Christine Dunham – toxin-antitoxin/persistence

Graduate student Sarah Anderson presenting her poster at ASM Microbe. She discussed a genetic connection between virulence switch and antibiotic resistance.

Dunham, a structural biologist, is giving a plenary talk June 11 on toxin-antitoxin pairs, which play a role in regulating bacterial persistence, a dormant state that facilitates antibiotic resistance. Two past papers from her lab.

Phil Rather lab – Acinetobacter baumannii

Rather’s lab recently published a Nature Microbiology paper on A. baumannii’s virulence/opacity switch. This type of bacteria is known for hospital-associated infections and for wound infections in military personnel. Poster talk by graduate student Sarah Anderson June 8. Read more

Posted on May 22, 2018 by Quinn Eastman in Uncategorized Leave a comment

Retaining the resistance: MCR-1, colistin + lysozyme

If you’ve been following the news about antibiotic resistant bacteria, you may have heard about a particularly alarming plasmid: MCR-1. A plasmid is a circle of DNA that is relatively small and mobile – an easy way for genetic information to spread between bacteria. MCR-1 raises concern because it provides bacteria resistance against the last-resort antibiotic colistin. The CDC reports MCR-1 was found in both patients and livestock in the United States this summer.
David Weiss, director of Emory’s Antibiotic Resistance Center, and colleagues have a short letter in The Lancet Infectious Diseases showing that MCR-1 also confers resistance to an antimicrobial enzyme produced by our bodies called lysozyme. MCR-1-containing strains were 5 to 20 times less susceptible to lysozyme, they report.
This suggests that the pressure of fighting the host immune system may select for MCR-1 to stick around, even in the absence of colistin use, the authors say.
While the findings are straightforward in bacterial culture, Weiss cautions that there is not yet evidence showing that this mechanism occurs in live hosts. For those that really want to get alarmed, he also calls attention to a recent Nature Microbiology paper describing a hybrid plasmid with both MCR-1 and resistance to carbapenem, another antibiotic.

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Posted on October 18, 2016 by Quinn Eastman in Uncategorized Leave a comment

Fooling the test: antibiotic resistant bacteria that look susceptible

A diagnostic test used by hospitals says a recently isolated strain of bacteria is susceptible to the “last resort” antibiotic colistin. But the strain actually ignores treatment with colistin, causing lethal infections in animals.

Through heteroresistance, a genetically identical subpopulation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria can lurk within a crowd of antibiotic-susceptible bacteria. The phenomenon could be causing unexplained treatment failures in the clinic and highlights the need for more sensitive diagnostic tests, researchers say.

In Nature Microbiology (published online Monday, May 9), scientists led by David Weiss, PhD, describe colistin-heteroresistant strains of Enterobacter cloacae, a type of bacteria that has been causing an increasing number of infections in hospitals around the world.

“Heteroresistance has been observed previously and its clinical relevance debated,” Weiss says. “We were able to show that it makes a difference in an animal model of infection, and is likely to contribute to antibiotic treatment failures in humans.”

Weiss is director of the Emory Antibiotic Resistance Center and associate professor of medicine (infectious diseases) at Emory University School of Medicine and Emory Vaccine Center. His laboratory is based at Yerkes National Primate Research Center. The co-first authors of the paper are graduate students Victor Band and Emily Crispell.

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Posted on May 13, 2016 by Quinn Eastman in Immunology Leave a comment