Fighting Antibiotic-Resistant Superbugs Across Diverse Habitats

Featured Speaker: Gautam Dantas, Ph.D., 2015 Outstanding St. Louis Scientist Innovation Award recipient, The Academy of Science of St. Louis; and Associate Professor, Department of Pathology & Immunology, Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Department of Molecular Microbiology, Washington University School of Medicine.

Disease-causing bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to all available antibiotics, causing approximately 23,000 deaths and costing the U.S. $35 billion each year. This scenario is predicted to worsen, with fewer and fewer new drugs coming to market. New DNA sequencing and computational technologies are enabling a deeper understanding of how antibiotic resistance evolves and spreads in diverse bacteria, providing critical insights into prevention and diagnosis of future infections.
The Academy’s 2015 Outstanding St. Louis Scientist Innovation Award recipient, Gautam Dantas offers a compelling look at how these technologies reveal an intricate network of antibiotic resistance exchange between bacteria across habitats as diverse as the soil, the human body, and hospital environments.

Fighting Antibiotic-Resistant Superbugs is a Science in St. Louis Series partnership between The Academy of Science – St. Louis, St. Louis County Libraries, the Photosynthetic Research Antenna Center (PARC), and Washington University’s Gephardt Institute for Civic and Community Engagement.