Investigating the Effect of Temperature on Pump-Driven Antibiotic Resistance towards Erythromycin in Escherichia coli

Lead Research Organisation: UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
Department Name: Biosciences

Abstract

Project title: Investigating the effect of the environmental temperature on the evolution of antimicrobial resistance
Antibiotics are one of the greatest discoveries of human science, and form the bedrock of modern medicine.
However, a catastrophic lack of investment in these drugs over the past 50 years has led to the present scenario where drug resistant pathogens now exist for all known antibiotics, with no new classes of antibiotics on the horizon.
This project will investigate a key aspect of antibiotic resistance, that is what is the impact of the temperature in the environment on the evolution of antimicrobial resistance.
In order to so, this project will use statistical analysis, mathematical modelling and high-resolution imaging to investigate the correlation between (i) temperature, (ii) the expression of efflux pumps, and (iii) resistance to commonly used antibiotics.
This project will therefore provide new mathematical and physical tools as well as new knowledge for tackling the current antimicrobial resistance crisis.

Publications

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Studentship Projects

Project Reference Relationship Related To Start End Student Name
EP/N509656/1 01/10/2016 30/09/2021
1804934 Studentship EP/N509656/1 01/06/2016 30/08/2020 Jesmine Ahmed