"The Inoculum Effect in the Era of Multidrug Resistance: Minor Differences in Inoculum Have Dramatic Effect on Minimal Inhibitory Concentration Determination."

The manuscript describes use of D300-based inkjet printing technology to investigate the inoculum effect with a resolution not previously possible.  The inoculum effect is the general observation that the minimal inhibitor concentration (in other words level of resistance) of an organism to an antibiotic increases when a higher density of organisms is tested.   This is effect is especially prominent for beta-lactam antiibiotics.  It is of potential clinical concern during some types of infections when the organism burden is high.  Here we explored whether subtle differences in inoculum within the range allowed by current standards can effect the susceptibility testing results that clinical laboratories obtain and provide to clinicians.  Our findings for organisms with certain types of multidrug-resistance and very important classes of antibiotics was that these small allowable differences in inoculum could change the MIC determinations and the determination of whether organisms were susceptible or resistant to the antibiotics tested.

The laboratory has been fortunate to participate in Harvard Catalyst Reactor Program through the "Big Ideas, Small Features” Pilot Grant Award.  A description of the program was recently published last week in Harvard Medical School news titled "Catalyzing Research Innovation."    

A description of the supported work can be found at: "Reactor Program Awards Eight New Pilot Grants: Supports researchers with novel solutions to major clinical challenges."

Thea was awarded an Academy of Clinical Laboratory Physicians and Scientists (ACLPS) Paul E. Strandjord Young Investigator Research Grant to study antimicrobial synergy against multidrug-resistant pathogens! 

"These grants are for research relevant to clinical laboratory science, clinical pathology, and laboratory medicine. Proposed research may be clinical, translational, basic science, quality improvement, and/or regulatory.

As this grant program is designed for young investigators, grant recipients must either be in training (residency and/or clinical or research fellowship) OR less than three years after their first faculty appointment (any level) at the time of application" . (quoted from: ​http://www.aclps.org/grant.html)

In the past, there have been only three such awards given nationally in a given year.