Understanding Multiple Antibiotic Resistance in Gram Negative Bacteria

Antibiotics have revolutionised medicine, increased life expectancy and, alongside vaccination, have led to the near eradication of many bacterial diseases. Despite this, they have been overused in the clinic, and in animals. This had led to many bacteria becoming resistant to such antibiotics. As a direct result of this, it is estimated that 10 million people will die each year due to a resistant, and therefore untreatable, infection by the year 2050. The multiple antibiotic resistance (mar) regulon plays an important role in the development of antimicrobial resistance. The mar operon encodes a global gene regulatory system that controls a vast array of genes involved in conferring antibiotic resistance. Many of these genes have been discovered but it is thought that many remain undefined. This project will attempt to uncover new gene targets of the mar operon, and therefore identify new mechanisms of antibiotic resistance. This will potentially allow new drug targets to be identified, and will help in the fight against antimicrobial resistance.