Landon J. Getz receives inaugural GSK EPIC Convergence Postdoctoral Fellowship in Antimicrobial Resistance
EPIC is pleased to announce Landon J. Getz as the recipient of the inaugural GSK EPIC Convergence Fellowship in Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). Established through a generous gift from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the fellowship will support Getz’s innovative and cross-disciplinary research that aims to address the growing threat of AMR through the development of phage therapy.
Can “sleeping” bacteria spread antibiotic resistance genes?
Today over sixty-five per cent of human infections are due to bacterial infections. Antibiotic resistance, when bacteria can defeat the drugs designed to kill them, is a serious health problem and remains a top concern for many clinicians and researchers. That’s why Celine Levesque’s lab has been studying how bacteria are able to survive in different conditions. Recently, together with senior research associate Delphine Dufour, they found that bacteria can pass on antibiotic-resistant DNA to other cells in the mouth. Although Levesque’s research heavily focuses on Streptococcus mutans (the bacteria responsible for cavities), their recent findings have implications that go well beyond oral health.
EPIC and bioMérieux bring leading researchers together for symposium on antimicrobial resistance
On November 23, the University of Toronto’s Emerging and Pandemic Infections Consortium (EPIC) partnered with diagnostics industry leader bioMérieux Canada to jointly host a research symposium on Canadian perspectives on antimicrobial resistance: where we are now and looking ahead.
Member Spotlight: Susy Hota
Meet Susy Hota, medical director of Infection Prevention and Control and an infectious disease specialist at the University Health Network. She is also an associate professor in the department of medicine at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto and co-lead of the University of Toronto Microbiota Therapeutics Outcomes Program.