Results of a study that we contributed to from the Wright Lab are out today in Nature. “A team of researchers led by McMaster University has discovered a fungus-derived molecule, known as AMA, which is able to disarm one of the most dangerous antibiotic-resistance genes: NDM-1 or New Delhi Metallo-beta-Lactamase-1, identified by the World Health Organization as a global public health threat.” [CBC Story Here].
The latest work from the Coombes lab was recently published in Infection & Immunity. This work was lead by postdoctoral fellow Dr. Joe McPhee, with help from postdoctoral fellow Dr. Cherrie Small, PhD student Sarah Reid-Yu, and collaborators at McGill University. The research investigated how adherent-invasive E. coli, a bacterium associated with Crohn’s disease, breaches host defenses to gain access to the protective layer of epithelial cells in the gut. Using an animal model developed in the lab, Joe identified genes in AIEC that allow the bacteria to degrade host defense peptides, normally used to protect the epithelial surface from bacteria. By degrading these antimicrobial molecules, AI
